A Letter on Paper: Short Poem

By: Sanjana Karthik

​He returns home
With his buttoned shirt
And maroon tie

He breathes it in
And lets out a sigh
His backpack slouching
Descends to the side

And plummets down
With a muffled cry

He can’t disclose it
Can’t let his parents know
He failed his test
Can’t let it be known 

He’s agitated about what an end of a stick 
Might do to him
Frightened they’ll loathe him even more

Petrified 

Filled with remorse

He attempted his best
He did his utmost
But his parents insist 

For so much

And he takes a fall...

He ponders on if 
He ought to end it all
As no compassion 
From his parents
Assembled cold walls

And little Jun Yang 
Feels all alone in the room

Where the only voice
He discerns
Is his own
And the only worries are
“What did he do wrong”
And the only inquiries he has
Is “how to move on?


And why is it every time
He reaches out

He feels his clench unlatching

Feels his body trembling...
Maybe this his body’s way
Of giving up 
On everything

But why?
Why did we let him
Just die?

Die

This young child 
Felt despondent,
Isolated,
And departed

In the middle of the night

A future
Vivid, 
Promising 
Now dissipated 
 In thin sight

All because 

A single grade 
Was made
To define 

His entire life

Why?

Canada,
Parents must be enlightened
With the notion
That their children 
Have more to propose 
More to present ...
Than their lives


Because
Otherwise,
We have just have latched doors
And no way out
And these little children 
Will have no way to sprout...