Tomorrow: A Short Poem

By: ​Sarah I. Saiyed

Tomorrow is a girl at the back of the class.
You never notice she’s there until she asks questions that nobody knows the answer to.
She wore her hair in a ponytail on Tuesday.
Thursday, she shaved her head.
She’s very unpredictable that way.
 
On days that she’s not alone in the halls,
Tomorrow walks hand-in-hand with Hope.
Hope has a contagious smile, but the day you forget to call out to her,
She disappears and doesn’t return until you look for her, for Tomorrow’s sake.
Tomorrow looks empty without Hope.
 
She sits between Future and Fortune but Fortune favors Bold,
So, she doesn’t mind shifting her seat sometimes.
 She doesn't like Past, blames him for all her problems just to shield herself from guilt.
Tomorrow is stubborn when wrong in an argument,
She doesn’t listen to what anyone has to say, holds grudges and scowls at mistakes.
 
On Sundays, she likes to talk to everyone about everything,
But as soon as Saturday comes around, she’s upset that nothing ever goes her way.
Tomorrow is insecure; she hears people whisper about her in hushed tones,
As if they expect her to run away. They don’t know that she likes it here, she wants to stay.
 
She doesn’t know this, but everyone likes her best.
Sure, people love getting emotional with Past and almost everyone is best friends with Today,
But Tomorrow is whose company we all look forward to at the end of the day.
 
When Past said he’s going to move out of town,
He told Today to visit often.
And when Today was away visiting,
Tomorrow would take his seat, and Future took hers.
And when Time made a relatively funny joke in class,
They smiled at each other from across the room.