Simplicity

The carpet’s neon pink nail polish stains
Peek through last week’s laundry.
College applications, full of potential,
Lie stagnant on a threadbare cushion.
A colossal, plastic Happy Birthday
Hangs limp, deflated in the corner.
Crumpled photographs of smiling children
Lie abandoned, under an unmade bed.

But out of the clutter and chaos,
Emerging from beneath the skinny model
Posing on the cover of Seventeen,
A friendly face peeps through.
Eyes shining, Teddy smiles up at me,
A lone friend to recover me
From drowning in a sea of disorder.

by Alanna Cooney
12th grade, ‘Iolani School