High School Contest Second Place Winner Poetry: “The Pencil”

by Rebat Matin

Erasing away the mistakes of others and making it my own,

Changing my colors from a bright pink to a gloomy grey.

Eroding away slowly but continuing to make progress.

Only when my head is lost into minuscule pieces of rubber am I abandoned.

When I have nothing left I am forgotten.

Lost and alone in the corner of a room, 

Or in a vast jar of others like me.

My feet are sharpened until I can no longer move.

I write and draw with the help of the hands of the creator.

The mastermind behind it’s work.

We are both valuable to one another.

When I am tired and dull you are no longer there.

My world is always in a constant state of grey

Never experiencing the world of color and imagination.

I’m used all over again for my value.

An endless cycle of creation and erasing,

Breaking and shaving into thin spirals of wood and led.

Always forgotten by the end of the day.

Left exhausted and alone.

Rebat Matin is a student at Woodbridge Senior High School