* This poem is a sestina, a french form consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The final words of each line repeat in a different but predetermined sequence in each stanza.
when we rise like the sun,
we begin crawling
and we use our limbs to begin our reaching.
the incessant spin of the sun and the moon encourage
us to keep going
and to continue our growth.
we become one with our growth,
looking up towards the sun,
while the bells ring and we are going
to a place where time begins crawling.
we are sat in the spaces that are made to encourage
schooling, growing, and reaching.
we start reaching
towards those who put an edge to our growth.
to those who are formed to encourage,
as though they are lit from behind by the sun,
and they are telling us, keep crawling,
you must work, to get where you are going.
so we keep on our path of going,
they tell us to keep reaching,
and eventually, we begin to beg for the crawling,
and the hopeful hints of growth;
that are hidden away, like the moon hides the sun,
and all everyone does is encourage.
we try harder for those who encourage
us to keep going
closer to the sun.
for them, we keep reaching
because they have watched our growth
since we began crawling.
they see us crawling,
only to encourage
the pain of our growth.
it is coming and it is going,
and we stand on the precipice of greatness, reaching,
like icarus, towards the sun.
our growth only ever gives the same slow sensation of crawling,
the sun only ever seems to encourage.
and we only ever keep going, and reaching.
Lorelei Santos is a graduating senior from Pembroke Pines Charter High School. Her poem entitled “to reach, to rise, to fall” won first place in the sestina category of the 2024-24 PPCHS Poetry Fair.
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