The air on the back of their neck, as they take a glimpse outside. 

The sun beams through the window, but it’s not close enough. 

They want to go out, but the air seems toxic.

You’re scared. 

Grades through emails, 

Teachers through computer screen, 

Communicating emotions through tapped letters. 

This isn’t the way a human should live. 

Being heard has never been so hard,

But we wake up and we try, and we try, and we try again,

Even if we fall you get up, and get up, and trying again, 

No matter how hard we got to keep trying they say, 

But at this point we’re trying more than we are living,

Living more than we are breathing.

Trapped the air is thinning, 

But it’s thinner outside. 

Oh outside,

What I would do to be outside. 

To be able to hear my friends voice again.

Without the creaking of my Wi-Fi breaking off the punchline. 

When the word pandemic didn’t stop my feet,

The thoughts of bats didn’t hunt my dreams.

This isn’t the way a person to live,

But that’s the way we’re living now. 

My senior year through a blurry screen, 

Deduct grades by Wi-Fi bars, 

Connections never seen so far. 

I’m defeated, depleted.

The school year to remember,

The year when our reality popped up like a balloon.

Our normality taken away,

Our mentality breaking day by day, 

The old you fading away,

But we must keep trying, 

I must keep trying.