I built a rocketship,
with kraft cardboard
and Elmers glue that stuck
to the pads of my fingers
the epoxy of eternity
on my epidermis just
a mess of chemicals
but then again
isn’t that just all of us?
I built my rocketship
and dragged it into the yard
the grass was wet
and it stained the cardboard
the dampness of dew
on the rocketship door
not so perfect,
not really perfect anymore
but that really
just about sums up life
I clambered into my rocketship
and pulled out a paper map
it was a map of the universe
drawn on newspaper
with subsiding sharpies
and I forgot how vast
and wide the world was
until I recognized my map
of the universe
many weeks and months later
in a different phase of life
in a different country
in a different continent
I found it in human eyes.
Nikhita Makam is 16 years old, too young to know much but too old to get away with things. She is author of 14 works by a 14 year old and calls herself a "high school student by day, poet by night." Her works have been published in national newspapers and international journals. She believes that poetry has power, something that her mother taught her. She finds happiness in reading, writing, gardening, octopuses, and wondering about ladybugs. She tries her best to maintain a balance between all of her hobbies, school and the common dreaded enemy to all high school students- homework.