Day after day
I see people like me
young, bright, charismatic
skulking about
blank, expressionless
fatigued

Day after day
endless workloads pile up
as we drown in the torrent
of stress, struggling to catch
a breath

Day after day
we come home
tired and exhausted
only to find that
we’re not finished
yet

Day after day
we labor, fearful of
the consequences, neglecting
our well-being for the sake
of numbers that
define us

And day after day
we stress over
extensive assignments,
cramming them into
tight schedules, many times
unable to finish because of our
busy lives

Day after day
we sit in fear, scared to
speak up, too afraid of what
could happen if we
disagreed

Who are we?

We are the students, the
students who have a voice that is
never heard, who are silenced when we
speak a word, who have opinions that are
never valued or considered, who are
told to look on the bright side, when there is
not much of a bright side to look upon
we are those who work round the clock
each day, who labor for
no pay, whose outside lives are
taken away, who cannot sleep at
the workplace, yet must work at
home. Home, where the family is,
the family we don’t have time for,
the family that we can’t be with because of
our life that we can’t control

Day after day
we want to speak up
in the hopes that someone
will finally
listen