Katherine Johnson
I look in the mirror
My bed is wood
And my throat is cotton.
I don’t know where my hands are.
“Katherine,
Study harder!”
My mom’s fast Chinese echoes
In my brain that’s somewhere in my body.
My white walls
Plastered with posters from happier days
Close in on me.
The concerned face of my roommate
Hides behind her hair
And disappears.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
The weight I gained:
From stress,
From school,
From not having the grades to get into
Yale,
Columbia,
Harvard.
My room is a cage,
And my life is a vacuum.
I can’t define what my goals are.
I wanna
Be happy.
My resume smothered with unpaid
Anxiety and nonsensical fruitions
Control me.
My problems feel like dust compared to the world.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
The time my parents wasted:
For what?
They pay money for me to be in a place
Where i am not
Myself.
In a place where I hurt
The flesh they created.
My summer is a mystery,
And my hands are held
By people I trust,
People I just met
That I love.
I don’t know what will happen
In these wild and beautiful months.
I do know
My body,
My struggles,
My sadness
Do
Belong.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
A beautiful stranger.
I am getting to know her.
I look in the mirror
My bed is wood
And my throat is cotton.
I don’t know where my hands are.
“Katherine,
Study harder!”
My mom’s fast Chinese echoes
In my brain that’s somewhere in my body.
My white walls
Plastered with posters from happier days
Close in on me.
The concerned face of my roommate
Hides behind her hair
And disappears.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
The weight I gained:
From stress,
From school,
From not having the grades to get into
Yale,
Columbia,
Harvard.
My room is a cage,
And my life is a vacuum.
I can’t define what my goals are.
I wanna
Be happy.
My resume smothered with unpaid
Anxiety and nonsensical fruitions
Control me.
My problems feel like dust compared to the world.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
The time my parents wasted:
For what?
They pay money for me to be in a place
Where i am not
Myself.
In a place where I hurt
The flesh they created.
My summer is a mystery,
And my hands are held
By people I trust,
People I just met
That I love.
I don’t know what will happen
In these wild and beautiful months.
I do know
My body,
My struggles,
My sadness
Do
Belong.
I look in the mirror,
And I see
A beautiful stranger.
I am getting to know her.
Katherine Johnson (17) lives in Groton, Massachusetts, and is a junior at Groton School. She is an aspiring writing with a diverse background: her father is American and her mother is Chinese. She is primarily inspired by introspective works. She has published work in Teen Ink and Lilun Magazine.