Sort of a melancholy day

[xaara]

Wrote a bunch of draft poetry, some of which is okay and might make it to open reading in class tomorrow. Other than that, little of importance happened today.

Drifts

I'm not afraid to die, she hisses
just before she steps
into the street, strolling so slowly.
My sister whispers
What's she doing?
and I shrug and answer
I don't know before
pulling away from the scene.
That was weird, sister says,
already having shrugged it off.
But I keep hearing the woman's voice
the lilt of desperation and acceptance.
Yeah, I say, and pause,
for only a second
pause and look back.
The woman has vanished
and the grey city-snow
has already filled her footprints.

Physics

The unit of time, my teacher says,
is the second. You
always convert to seconds
before you solve.
Oh, I think, and it all
makes sense--the
You go, no, you go
of long distance calls
measured in minutes;
the grounded for a week
when I'm a half-hour late for curfew;
the sixty-five million years
since the dinosaurs died
the six months since
you left me--
they're all just stacked seconds
marching like ants, single file:
touching noses, brushing antennae
and then moving on.

13-19, but also dependant on maturity

I know people claim teenagers
think they're immortal,
but we understand death better
than most adults.

There is a marked distinction
between not comprehending death
and not being ready
to die.