One Track Minds

Note: I wrote this piece after a difficult math class. This was somewhat of a comeback piece from feeling judged as not smart after seeing peers excel so easily in the lessons while I struggled. Eventually, I came to the perspective that we all have different strengths that make us unique, and shouldn’t feel judged for having to work harder to achieve success in different areas of our lives.

For One Track Minds

I think like a mountain forest
learned to live like it’s trees
learned to sip the sunlight syrup
to bathe in the light
I am
the Oxygen

You need people like me
need me like air
I find joy everywhere

Only when I’m gone
do you remember how much you
loved to breathe 

You think like a train
chop my thoughts down
to carve your path
into the earth’s crust
chugging
cutting through life
hitting things so hard you plow through them

You’ve made a powerful path
so determined yet so
unaware

of how many worlds you pass
through your window.

Photo: I took this photo back in 2011 with one of my first point-and-shoot cameras. My family and I annually come up to visit my cousins in Vermont over Columbus Day weekend. This tree is in the front yard of their house, one they often tap for syrup in the winter.