Running For My Life Poem by Maya Reid

Running
Down the hall
The bell is ringing
I’m late for class
I’m late for life

Running
From this thing
This big, black, ugly
Swirling, shifting, changing thing
This thing that is everything
But is thin as air
Is really nothing at all

Running
From this thing
This thing I call “The Black”
That chases me
Seemingly
For all eternity

Running
From my past
Passing right by the present
Into my future
Into one of these doors
The doors that line the hall
The hall of life I’m running down
Running because I’m late
Running for my life

Running
Past these doors
One of them is the right door
The door through which I must go
Oh, how do I know
Which key on the jingling ring in my hand
Opens the door to my future?

The door to everything
I’ve ever wanted to do
Or be
The one door through which
That thing
The Black
Cannot follow me

Oh, look
Up ahead
That might be it
That door just screams my name
(But they won’t like that door –
It doesn’t fit their mold)

So what?
Who cares?
It’s my life
It’s my future
That door is me!
Now I’m
Searching
For the key.