Sun Eyes

A boy lies down in the sand 
Whenever he cries,
he says his eyes have cracks in them. 
Looking into the sun, 
his eyes start leaking not tears 
But 
whites of sclera,                               blacks of pupils, 
browns of melanin:                          lathering his cheeks 
and emptying his sockets.                He fingers the graves
in his face for an answer,                 any answer
Keep moving forward
               So he crawls through sand 
                                                     into sea, 
                                                                  where only tears are seen.

Oppressive Dreams

I tried 
walking 
into the  
              sunlight, 
but                     the               
     rays                   looked 
           like                       knives. 
After          enough cuts             I would                               
       surely                    die.                     I wish                                   
                 I                          could                survive 
   past            the cuts.                    For                    every lie,                 
        every              misstep,               every                         dismissive remark, 
               every                glance,                every cut;                                    and feel happy                                                                           about it                     I want                    to thrive                                               in that                       golden sun:         even if                      I knew                                              it would kill me.  

Cosmic Meltdown

The soft, billowing whispers of stars 
distract me from the torrent under my feet. 
A high so high 
I forgot there was ground 

Yet no matter how far I was, 
that torrent found 
a way to my throat 
and swelled 

I looked back up at space: 
blues, violets, and a loss of senses 
That’s all I need right now 
You said there’s nowhere else 
to go but up 
so please 
don’t let me drag myself down

Maya Adenihun is a junior in high school who uses her sensitivity and intense imagination to express her ideas into the expansive form of poetry. When she is not writing poetry, Maya can be found reading, writing short stories, songs, and vignettes, drawing, finding new music, and exploring her never-ending list of deep interests. In the future she wants to be a child therapist and hopes that even more of her writing can be published.

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