Vineland Public Library

Teen Talk

September/October 2001 

Shades of Mediocrity, 12:47 a.m.

By Evelyn Duffy

My roommate snores,

contented and asleep,

safe from the prowling demons that haunt the edges

of my sleep-deprived eyes.

Outside, buildings are dark, windows are closed.

My lamp is the only one burning.

I am so alone, and the silence

tears at my soul.

Yet I am only whole at night,

without a mask to wear,

or a character to play.

There are no lies told in these early hours,

for night is the time when truths are born.

Dawn of a New Day

By Jennifer R. Confalone

A new day dawns

Without you by my side

For once I think of you

And instead of tears

A smile graces my face

Instead of the bitterness

I feel only fond regret

I stretch my arms

To the ceiling

For the first time

I wake up with a smile

And I know that I am happy

I am happy without you

I can see this

In my mind’s eye

Then I start to cry

Because the day I am happy without you

Is a day that hasn’t dawned yet

Judgment Day

By Evelyn Duffy

Am I my brother’s keeper?

He lays there in the reeds,

blood seeps down into the dust

and drips along my hands.

Am I my brother’s keeper? The rebellious words pound within my heart.

I am Cain, but too, I am thousands of years of humanity.

I am all of life,

deciding the wrath of Heaven

is a bearable price to pay for independence.

Questions of honor arise in my mind,

the first murderer of earth;

doubts fly around me with the flies,

and I begin to fear the heavy hand of God.

Is independence merely exile in disguise? Has free will always been a lie?

I kneel beside my brother’s broken body;

then flee, marked by God and all alone,

to set the whole of mankind in search of one answer:

Am I my brother’s keeper?