“Out of a Crisis: The Voices of Our Students” is a new series, launched by the Globe’s Great Divide team, that publishes student essays, poems, artwork, and videos featuring teenage perspectives on learning and living amid a pandemic. The stories are published in the Great Divide newsletter.
About the author: Hiwan Maru, 17, is a senior at the Muriel S. Snowden International School at Copley. Listen to Maru read her poem:
Nothing Like Being A Teenager During This Pandemic
Wake up in the morning, and get myself cleaned
The only Joe I meet is my morning coffee
Two sugars, wait, no three sugars, or I’ll fall asleep
Cameras on, mics off, five days a week
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Stay in the house, no need to take the bus
Hours reserved for hearing know-it-all adults talk, talk, talk
They know books, but do they know us?
If they miss the mark on reliability, who do we trust?
COVID-19 puts the “dead” in “deadlines”
Outside everyday, too scared of opening the blinds
Encouraged to work hard, encouraged to stay kind
Used to be there for everyone else’s problems, but now I got mine
April, June, August, October, still here
Want to stay optimistic since I’m graduating this year
Can’t help the negative thoughts, can’t help the fear
I know where I want to go, but where I will go is painfully unclear