Teen Style

Richmond County

Ode to Rudyard Kipling’s if…
By Marshall Hubert 12th Grade

It is morning.
Inspiration hangs on my bathroom hall.
Kipling speaks to me on the commode.
Words resonate past the glass and frame, through my eyes, into my brain.
It’s friction between match and flint,
If…I am composed,
If…I am resilient,
If…I am dedicated,
If…I am true.
The spark ignites a fire.
A Kipling man by night I aspire.

I enter class, I am harassed:
talk of trash and blasphemous slash,
tasks that seem past any conceivable craft.
Some laugh, some will snap,
I know I will pass,
If…I am composed.

Rejection in front of everyone,
leads to a change of perception.
I stay the course,
never lose direction.
I know I will find the correction,
If…I am resilient.

I leave class, I pour my heart on the field.
Decorated in my Raider shield,
I collide.
Red and silver smears the grass,
I rise from the earth.
I know I will be victorious,
If…I am dedicated.

I arrive home, tired to the bone.
My family surrounds me,
embraced with warmth and compassion,
I know I will never be alone,
If…I am true.

As I reside, I feel content,
but as soon as I awake, I feel bent.
Again, I arrive at my thinking stool,
And listen to his plan.
If...I can follow these virtues,
he says one day I will become a man!