When Everything is Due Tomorrow | Teen Ink

When Everything is Due Tomorrow

March 26, 2013
By LiraDaeris PLATINUM, Tucson, Arizona
LiraDaeris PLATINUM, Tucson, Arizona
22 articles 0 photos 135 comments

Favorite Quote:
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!


Never enough time, no hours, nor seconds,

neither moments nor laughs nor inhales of breath,

so my breath is short to keep in time.
With each panic I feel a year flutter off my life, 

and my heart trips a beat,

and my stomach conspiring to flee as well-
As much of me that can be free takes its leave:

my security, my sanity, strands from my scalp
        my thoughts, my plans, my cares
Abandon me. My sleep hides from me in the night,

a shadow cowering beneath my bed as I shudder above. 
My past, it runs from my future;

but I cannot blame it, for the unknown 

is the most fearsome of all creatures.
But lucky was I to be pitied

by Could Have and What If. 
Though I really must say they are poor partners for tea-

they fall into eternal conversation,

Mr. Have stuck in the past and Sir If the future, 
So I, barely strong enough to keep pace with the present,

can only listen as my human friends sleep,
In nowhere when I must be everywhere;

place+time - the math should be simple -

should I have checked it, though-

for all I get is forty-two. 


The author's comments:
From my poetry book in progress, "Heartsong for the Evening." Inspired by a week when I had a Japanese speech, a show, high school make-up work with honors classes, and college decisions all due.

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This article has 19 comments.


on May. 29 2013 at 1:26 am
EmmettHerculeLaFave SILVER, Tucson, Arizona
8 articles 0 photos 70 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." -Thomas Paine

What they said. All that cool stuff with the personification. I don't know how to describe it but you know what I'm talking about. But seriously I liked it and I couldn't do that.

BlurAngel GOLD said...
on May. 27 2013 at 9:27 am
BlurAngel GOLD, Bexleyheath, Other
16 articles 16 photos 58 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love is an Emotion of strong Affection and Personal Attachment.....

good personification.....

BlurAngel GOLD said...
on May. 27 2013 at 9:26 am
BlurAngel GOLD, Bexleyheath, Other
16 articles 16 photos 58 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love is an Emotion of strong Affection and Personal Attachment.....

Excelent work.. can't fault it. its perfect..

on May. 27 2013 at 9:01 am
haley101 DIAMOND, Windsor, Connecticut
70 articles 5 photos 195 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

― Mary Oliver

i love how you personified could have and what if very original

on May. 25 2013 at 3:04 pm
TargonTheDragon GOLD, Ofallon, Missouri
15 articles 16 photos 292 comments

Favorite Quote:
First dentistry was painless.
Then bicycles were chainless,
Carriages were horseless,
And many laws enforceless.

Next cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless,
And coffee caffeineless.

Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy was hatless,
The proper diet fatless.

New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religion — godless.

haha happy i got it too:P

on May. 23 2013 at 3:41 pm
LiraDaeris PLATINUM, Tucson, Arizona
22 articles 0 photos 135 comments

Favorite Quote:
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

verily ^_^ Thanks for catching it!!

on May. 23 2013 at 12:22 pm
TargonTheDragon GOLD, Ofallon, Missouri
15 articles 16 photos 292 comments

Favorite Quote:
First dentistry was painless.
Then bicycles were chainless,
Carriages were horseless,
And many laws enforceless.

Next cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless,
And coffee caffeineless.

Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy was hatless,
The proper diet fatless.

New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religion — godless.

was that a reference at the end to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy? the whole..."all i get is 42" line?

GreyGirl ELITE said...
on May. 23 2013 at 4:50 am
GreyGirl ELITE, Pohang,Kyungbuk, Other
170 articles 122 photos 391 comments
Oh my goodness! I can relate to this so much, especially with it being the end of the school year and all. We highschool students are so rushed, sometimes it's hard. Anyway, very good writing. Good imagery. Good pacing. Five stars :)

on May. 1 2013 at 10:29 am
SunnyDreams BRONZE, Niger Falls, Other
1 article 0 photos 274 comments

Favorite Quote:
Can you feel what I have seen, when no one else has lived through what I have?-HalveOfLife

i luv this and i kno exaclt how that is and i cant stand it....... this is sunny by the way

on Apr. 30 2013 at 6:34 pm
davidnolan BRONZE, Manchester, Vermont
2 articles 0 photos 12 comments
Very great! I loved the pacing in it- it read so easily. Also, a lot of your word choices were great (like saying your stomach was conspiring to leave). The one suggestion I have, and it's really minor, would be to get rid of the "it" here: "My past, it runs from my future" I think it would just flow better as "my past runs to my future"

Mckay ELITE said...
on Apr. 22 2013 at 6:32 pm
Mckay ELITE, Somewhere, Virginia
146 articles 0 photos 2230 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."
—Apple’s “Think Different” commercial, 1997
“Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of the society only because their intelligence isn't understood.”
― Weihui Zhou

I'm laughing because I feel as though this poem is about me. You haven't been secretly watching me, have you? Kidding. I relate to it; all teens, I'm sure, do.

on Apr. 21 2013 at 7:50 pm
ElisaTheDuck ELITE, Rigaud, Other
323 articles 5 photos 166 comments

Favorite Quote:
LOOK AT MY PROFILE. DO IT.

I've been through this situation a million times over.... I'm a last-minute person. =P

on Apr. 20 2013 at 10:56 pm
TevyRae PLATINUM, Pittsfield, Pennsylvania
24 articles 7 photos 80 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Here is a small fact: You are going to die." ~The Book Thief
"You have no stupidity inside of your adorable little self." ~Mikey Pasterik

very nice. relatable. five stars. very good!! God Bless

on Apr. 20 2013 at 3:29 pm
ItsJustV SILVER, Saint Ansgar, Iowa
5 articles 0 photos 9 comments
This is great, and so relatable. You seem to take on a deeper meaning towards the end, yet finish it off with  a very simple line that ties it all off. Very well done!

on Apr. 20 2013 at 3:28 pm
DayDreamerQuxxn122 SILVER, New Oxford, Pennsylvania
8 articles 0 photos 2 comments
wow.. so accurate! :D

on Apr. 19 2013 at 1:55 am
romanticpoet GOLD, Dhaka, Other
16 articles 2 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
love is like a rose, it has many colors & sights of beauty in spite of having thorns

very good it was one of a kind

on Apr. 19 2013 at 12:31 am
PriyaModi BRONZE, Indore, Other
1 article 7 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
I like the way i am,need no transformation,,,LOVE LIFE.

Thumbs up!

on Apr. 18 2013 at 11:14 pm
_betweenthelines_ BRONZE, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
4 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."- Edgar Allan Poe

Wow! This poem expresses EXACTLY how I feel right now... amazing! :D  

ZoieRose GOLD said...
on Apr. 18 2013 at 12:23 am
ZoieRose GOLD, Olympia, Washington
11 articles 1 photo 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
People don't always put up walls to keep other people out, sometimes they put up walls to see who's strong enough to break them down

This is me every day