Page 9 - Virge 2025

To cry for the undeserving
By A. Lauchman, Grade 10 | Layout Credit: Indira Handa, Grade 11
In this world, I have lived a short, meaningless life. I
have not traveled to mountains so high I can taste
my own breath. I have not swum the Pacific Ocean.
Heck, I haven’t even gone past ten feet. Ten feet of
90% of this world I live on. By some mistake, I
believe I am special. I believe I am intelligent. I
believe I could swim farther if I wanted, and I do
believe the mountains wait just for me to climb. Call
me foolish. Call me young. Call me emotional
because, yes. I am. I cry. I cry. I cry. I cry. For you, I’d
cry, too. But you make me cry in spiteful ways
because of your ignorance. I understand you were
once me. Young, hopeful. And you, too, couldn’t
pass ten feet. I wonder if you’ve touched the 90%
even at all. You never have, I realize now. You’ve
never touched the water. That is what you have yet
to encounter. I may be half of what you are in the
social status. I may spend my worth on paper and
cotton toys, but I know at least 10% of the 90%.
That part of the world I’ve touched is now gone. You
sit in the tower of a city under your control, but when
it is cloudy, no one will see you. No one will care. But
when it is cloudy, I will be on my heels in the sand,
watching as this world you’ve missed swirls its insides
like feathers in the breeze. The mountains I have yet
to reach will smile. The 90% of the ocean will cast
waves over your tower. You won’t have any choice
but to see the ocean then. And it’s funny, the ocean
won’t be what kills you. No. Not the 90%. You know
what it will be? The height. You, in your high tower.
You will fall and drown because you haven’t learned
to swim at the ripe age you are. I swim past those
windows the clouds covered, and I think about the
10% that’s covered now. Would it be arrogant of me
to cry as you die? No. It would be immature. So yes, I
cried for you. I cried, I cried. I cried. Wouldn’t you
hate to see where you rest now? At the bottom of
90% of the world.
I cry for you, but I know now that to overcome people like you,
I must do it myself.
I must make 100% of the world livable
for people unlike you,
but like me.
"Before Spring.
"
Catilin Lannon, Grade 9
Digital Drawing, Ibis Paint X
9