I'm Here

I walk into the classroom

Another year of missing her

My best friend.

Somebody irreplaceable

I watch her walk in the classroom

Another year of hoping she will hear me

My best friend.

Somebody utterly clueless

I hear a pounding in my ears

I can feel it: all throughout my body

Its deep and constant

As if something was trying to get through

I yell at her, right in front of her

Nobody can hear me

Let alone her

What more could I do

I ignore the pounding

It’s probably another sign that I need more sleep

But I can’t sleep anymore

I just see her in my dreams

I try to show her, in her dreams

I try to talk to her

And tell her

I’m here

Reflection

In my poem I’m Here, I show use of structure and various narration styles to give the reader the idea that they are witnessing two different interpretations of the same events in the poem. Per stanza, I switch between narrators, with one of them being dead and one alive: they are both describing the same things but from their own perspective. I also show use of caesura in the third stanza to show the specification of where the pounding is. “I can feel it: all throughout my body.” Within my poem, I wanted to give the readers an idea of how deep loss can be and how severely it can affect the people grieving as well as the people who have passed. They are both trying to contact each other, but keep crossing paths, which is supposed to make the readers feel uneasy about the situation. I use repetition in the first two stanzas to create familiarity for the readers and show the similar mind process that each narrator goes through in the beginning of the poem. I used an end stop line to slow down the line “My best friend.” to put emphasis on the connection between the two narrators. This allows for the reader to gain a better understanding of the characters in the poem, and gives them a more relatable sense to the content of I’m Here.