podcast icon Just Launched: ListenUp! The KidSpirit Podcast

A Long Sentence

Neissa Raymond

February 25, 2021

Department: Poetry

Issue: Life and Death

Image

Life is a sentence
This we know
It must end
It can’t be a run on
It can’t be unceasing
Sometimes it ends with a period
Sometimes with an exclamation
And worst of all
Sometimes it ends with
A question mark

Whatever awaits us after
We don’t know
A purgatory, paradise
Or the devil’s territory
Or maybe simply nothing
And our last valedictory
Are the obsequies
That mark the end of our sentence

But no story
No, tale worth telling
Isn’t filled with many
Sentences
No matter how long or short
And in our retellings
Of this very story
Fondly we’ll remember
And tearfully too
The sentences that came before
As hopefully as will be
Playing a role in a larger story
And in the unknown of
What’s succeeding
We can take comfort
In knowing we
Wield the pen
That marks our sentence.

Image

Neissa Raymond is a 12th-grader from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She enjoys reading, sports, writing, learning, and experiencing different cultures.