I know you won’t last
But that makes me cling to you all the more
The plane took me away from the place I loved
You are all I have left
The brown pattern
Its swirls looping across my hand
Grows fainter everyday

Sitting back in this school
Going through the motions of this so called life
It all seems meaningless

I have seen the real world
Those cliche “kids starving in Africa”
Have held my hand
I have tried to make a difference

Yet I’m back here
Listening to who’s dating whom
And other such “news”

This design stained on my skin
Is the only thing that I have to remember
It assures me
That it all was real

When I’m spinning around the halls of school
The faces of superficiality blending together into a blur
I can look down at my hand
And remember what truly maters

All the memories of the time in Tanzania
All the kids
All the people who changed me

As the design fades from my skin
It brands itself on my heart