Just Focus

You often tell us to "just focus,"

scolding us for our glassy eyes.

You think our minds wander simply

because we don't care about Hamlet, 

because we are bored,

because we are just teenagers.

But you have no idea

why we wander.

You don't know

that the dark-eyed boy in the corner

wanders out of fear,

fear that he could be missing the last moments of his ill mother's life;

that the frail girl in the third row back

wanders out of hunger,

perpetual hunger from the daily purging of her lunch to make her beautiful;

that the shy boy with downcast eyes

wanders out of loneliness,

loneliness that could convince him to swallow every last pill in the bottle.

You don't know why we wander.

You choose to not care,

to jump to conclusions,

to generalize.

Yet all you can say to us is "just focus."