Teenager

On the brink of blessed innocence

and wretched maturity

lies the hope of a nation.

Like the first songbird in the morning,

waking the new day,

they are the fresh eyes of the world.

When light knows no boundaries,

and darkness is prepared

to devour every defenseless depth,

their heart is ripe for reaping.

Shrouded by darkness,

and cloaked in invisibility,

they suffocate in sorrow.

Whose lives seemed so trivial,

they are grieved over exorbitantly

when taken from their predecessors' arms.

Sometimes not even old enough to drive a car,

they are matured enough to

deliver new light into the world,

fight for what they believe in,

change corruption or good intentions,

and, most dishearteningly of all,

depose of themselves permanently.

And even then,

like innumerable treacherous beasts,

crawling out of the depths of Hell,

all of humanity towers against them.

And, when the future of the Earth

lies upon their shoulders,

the gravity of their existence

is hardly remembered.

A small flicker,

a flash,

a flare,

a flame,

a torch,

a wildfire,

thrown into a tidal wave

of desolation and self-worth

A human being.

A heart, body, and soul.

A teenager who wonders,

How is my speck of an existence,

soon to be lost in the fabrics of time,

to be considered of value?

What is the cure for such

allusions of worthlessness

and misguided nihilism?

With words cold and callous and harsh,

depriving of oxygen,

eclipsing of light,

leeching of energy,

and terrorizing of hope,

they know no other way of life.

The teenager is his own worst enemy.