Light Side/Dark Side



 

This month, eighth grade student Gigi lets us explore the inner workings of her mind by examining the internal battle we face everyday. She uses dark and light imagery to express the struggle of balancing the two sides of our mind.

artwork by Lily C., Grade 8

Light Side, Dark Side

Light- Simply Happy

Letting happiness seep from inside out

Simply to be happy is all I want to show

Busy by, busy beyond

I busy myself with each strike of the second to show

To show that I really am happy

I may have heavy circles under each speckled eye

Paired with the baggy sweatshirts from my brothers closet

but I’m all right. 

 Streaking the seeping light onto each person I speak

But sputtering

Trying to spit out words

A babbling brook sometimes for speech,

Stuttering with the thoughts overflowing the brim

Like the bathtub down the hall.

Some people look at me funny

Like the wits in my brain are coming out with the words I speak

The seriousness is for those who see it, not those who seek it all the time

I don’t mind

Can others feel happy?

I let them do their own,

flow with the thoughts that they speak.

I don’t mind

And I never will know

Simply happy is all I will show.

Dark- Weighted Thoughts

I'm drained, tired of this

These weights down my pocket

As I thinkandthinkandthink

Now it’s too much

You’ve felt it trembling through your hands

Sadness Shaking

Right?

I want everything straight

A crisp line across in the row

Absolutely perfect

It hurts that it can’t be

It hurts that I can’t be the person I’ve wanted to be.

Why can't I

Look like this

Work swift like that

Sleep full through the nigHT TOO

MAny thoughts here

they clutched my brain

what a small world this really is.

But I still want to feel happy; I snatch the smoothed

stones from the linted depths of my pocket

I place them by my side

There is so many better things to do than dwell

there is so much more to my puzzle than these weighted thoughts.


-- by Gigi F., Grade 8