My strange phenomenon

What is it? Is it the sudden lack of happiness?

Why’s it that it’s only felt when none pay it heed?

When it is felt, it is fast, full, and furious.

It’s sensed: thriving in its greed

and leeching off the emotions that make one

bend forward, gripping their head, yet holding their fingers still upward, as if in supplication or in an appeal to some higher power that dares not rear its own head.

It worms its way through us, taking its time and prolonging our suffering.

Throwing at first straw at us, then sand,

stopping only because, like a screen, it’s buffer–

-Aliyah Millán, 18 September 2019

Class of 2020