‘What makes you tick?’ you ask

‘$1000 for your thoughts’ for them

Being honest, this poem is an unusually hard task

To sort what enters and leaves my brainstem

 

Summer

I looking out my window on a sultering summer day

So hot that one can see the waves of heat if you look hard enough

The neighbor comes out with his beach hat to wash his car

Kids ridding around with their bikes and scooters around the ‘hood’

I think, ‘What sane person would want to part from their air conditioner on a day like this’

Then that voice in the deep of my mind all but whispers, ‘What if they don’t have one?’

I never thought of that

 

Fall

Summer fades to the fall season; schools back in

You count down the days left, the countless back-to-school commercials, the coupons in the mail for back to school supplies

The last day of freedom comes, day before the first day

I take out all your supplies to label and put them away for the next day

Then I look back at that window, no one outside today

I think, “Must be getting ready for the first day too.”

That voice in the depths of your mind muses, ‘You think they have brand new supplies like you?’

I didn’t care to know before

 

Winter

October fades to November then rolls into December

Christmas, toys, presents, food, family….Biggest thing on your mind are the PRESENTS

With a twist though…’This year fill shoeboxes with items for the needy’

For a grade in government, I go, and fill up not one but two boxes (hoping for some extra credit)

The next day I come to school, to see my teacher scrambling to get ready for first period  

‘Ms. Blake I have my boxes’

‘Oh Good!!!’

I look and see the excitement and pleasure on her face as she looks at the items neatly packed in the boxes

Then that voice comes back

‘Christmas’ is all it said

25 days later, I wake up Christmas morning and the first thing I do

Is open up my bible and read about the best gift ever given

Then my thoughts subside to the people who would be getting the boxes today

And those who I didn’t make a box for

‘I would have loved to see their reactions’

‘Just 25 days ago, they weren’t worth more than a grade and a trip to the dollar store’ that voice convicted

 

 

Spring

With spring comes rain

And a time to reflect on the ever passing school year

What I’ve learned and how I’ve grown as a person

I think of all the people that are less fortunate than me

How did I come to be so fortunate?

The thought saddens me, I think

On the government class that I just passed

The heated debates about how our government should be and how it came to be what it is

How people come to this country for a brighter future and realize

They would be better off staying where they were

How people like me grow up in comfort, without having to work for anything I have

And we turn a blind eye to the neighbor who has no food or money to buy school supplies

It’s not just in other countries, other states, other cities

It’s right next door

Something has to be done, but what

My generation, the future, is the country’s only hope for change

We don’t realize how much we can do, so much at our disposal

But we waste it on ourselves, when our neighbors’ are hungry

Then that voice in the depths of my mind whispers, “You can’t”

I can’t, not by myself

I know who can, and it’s only by His strength and guidance I can

He can change my selfish thoughts and ways; He can give me strength to survive the long days

He can give me strength to part with a few pleasantries and give to someone less fortunate

Only He can give me the drive to keep going when I’m lacking it

Your right I can’t

And the change that God does through me, will be seen by others

And maybe, just maybe, We could be a ripple effect

That one pebble that disturbs the flow of a still stream

I could have never thought of it that way