Revealing The Apple Core

Hope puckers up and walks into her class,
Ready for the joys of Junior High,
With boys, and lipstick, and awkward first kisses.
Counting down the days until that next step.
Skip 3 years.

Hope covers up and walks into her class,
And the butterflies rise for her high school years to come,
Goodbyes and lies and the excitement of it all,
Counting down the days until that next step,

That next life, that next dream that she can achieve,
But skip a year and her dreams start to fade,
And her weary eyes begin to show,
As she slowly, so slowly realizes this:

That all of these colleges she so desperately longs to be a part of,
Only accept the cream of the crop,
And that the crop itself is slowly wilting,
Because everyone is trying to be the best.
But no one is learning.

With these pressures and expectations,
Hope memorizes-izes-izes away,
But it seems the very next day,
She throws it all away for what’s next.

Education is a beauty,
But its blemishes are rising,
Cause so many spend a fourth of their life
Without a life.
Preparing for an idea and a future
That possibly could never even come.

Hope wipes her eyes and walks into a field,
Mourning the life of the friend who disappeared,
From all the homework and studying for meaningless tests,
Hope is finally the best.

But she sure doesn't feel that way,
Because she didn’t have the time to say goodbye,
To a friend who idolized
Preparation more than life.
Skip 20 years.

Hope dresses up and walks in front of the crowd,
Who chants in pure excitement at this broken, black-eyed woman,
That walks past the elephants and clowns
To her spot in the chaos.
Quiet. Silence.

Ladies and Gentleman!
Behold this empty girl,
Who swirls politely and makes hollow sounds,
With her greatest friend, her own life,
20 years before quietly buried away.

And all for that future day,
That was lost in the exhaustion,
Due to the pressures of education.

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