Next Year
By Maia Armistead
i am waiting for next year.
waiting to hold you in an airport,
let the glass shatter, shatter,
space strewn on the runway.
next year i will go blind
everything rushing out of focus
next year i will stop
writing poems about myself, and
i will never wear my hair up again,
i promise. i will try
to find new ways to love you
on an empty stomach, like
never spending another christmas
apart, or looking up to see
stars and not crying for
that aching smallness. next
year i will see water again,
and i will find new things
to fill time with. like
letting myself be hated
for you, and letting
my face disappear from photos
just to hold you in an airport
and shatter. next year i will-
Maia Armistead is a 17 year old from Hamilton, and she was a finalist in the 2019 National Schools Poetry Competition.