“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: Carlos Pacheco, 17, is a senior at Excel High School. Listen to Pacheco read the poem:
Worker’s Cycle
Staying up at night until my eyes feel dry
I stare off at the walls before I fall into sleep
Just come home from work, so I’m heavily tired
But I’m behind about 12 assignments, so I stay up all night
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Now there’s only 9
Spending hours on Zoom calls throughout the week
While I still have homework that was due last month
Trying to persevere and not fall off track
But in these times, school blends in with what was my out-of-school life
The line distinguishing the two is fine
I pull through a 5-hour shift and clock out at 9
Wake up at 7 to log into class, but I
Only had 4 hours of sleep, so I doze off during advisory and miss my first 2 periods
I wake up to see the class was assigned 3 more assignments
I guess that’s back to 12