"Eventually" by Nina Chang-Lee

Photo by Athena on Pexels

I walk outside in the warm sunshine,

arrive at a crosswalk,

stand on the bumpy yellow crosswalk mat

and patiently wait.

Not a single car stops.

Not a silver SUV, or

a white truck with vile exhaust, or

a heavy U-Haul truck.

My hair is blown back by the wind

whooshing from the cars passing me

as if I'm invisible.

Not a person sees me.

Not the one with sunglasses, or

the teenager

or the person who drives slowly by.

Car after car passes me.

Sometimes an airplane flies over me.

Do I exist on this planet?

Eventually,

I cross the street

into the future.

Nina Chang-Lee is 16 years old.  She lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington and attends Hyla High School. Nina writes that she once recorded two Greenday songs with a few people from her school in a professional recording studio. And she has studied dance since she was around four years old. One day she was walking to dance class and had to cross a busy road but people wouldn’t stop. While she stood there waiting, she decided to write this poem. “I wanted people to think about not passing someone who is trying to cross the road.”