the intensity of middle school

 personas for and of the world

each of us constructs a persona

that expresses who we think we are,

who we hope we are,

and we construct a persona for the world

that is as hospitable, or inhospitable,

as we feel at the time,

middle schoolers work to figure out who they are,

and what they’re good at,

within a world that shifts and morphs

and seems to change the rules of the game

right in the middle of each play,

no wonder that many experience the middle school years

with frustration more prevalent than empowerment,

add a pandemic to the mix,

and it’s as if excessive oxygen fuels the fire of emotion,

we can feel a manic commitment to friends,

for they might be able to hold our heads above the encircling water,

we can feel a slap to the face

that wakes us up from our sureness,

we fear and we are anxious,

we know that we can lose,

that someone important to us can slip away,

or that we can feel ourselves to be imposters,

now is a time for the best of us, the best within us,

to show us, and to show the world,

that the personas we hope to be true

can actually come to be real,

despite how tenuous hope can be,

how susceptible to a pin prick the bubble of belief is.

by Henry H. Walker

October 14, ’22