HERe WITHout YOU
“Sitting here all by myself,”
As I ‘can’ memory to shelf.
Sadly, all begin in the self.
#2
“No man is an island.”
Thus, I thought of Kaitlyn,
The perfect way she stand.
#3
Umm…where did I meet her?
Was not during dinner…
Ah! A race to her locker.
#4
Kai, part of my memory?
We all know, she’s not Sony,
But, she host a great story.
#5
Again, why out of all, Kai?
Is it because she is shy?
Being me, that, I wouldn’t buy.
Girls scream for attention.
To Kai, there is no flirtation.
Everything has firm foundation.
#7
In Kai, I see the Lord.
Jesus Christ is her Board.
The Holy Bible is her sword.
#8
In class, Kai is my heroine.
I wish she is my vitamin,
Just like Saint Augustine.
#9
Within Kai, life is not a game.
She operates with an aim.
This has brought her fame.
#10
As we take leave and part,
Kai, you are still in my heart.
Your smile strike me like a dart.
#11
Let’s maintain our friendship.
Shun distance! Jump on the ship,
As we rise into leadership.
Verse 1: I usually write poetry by myself. When a new chapter is about to begin, I often think and pray to prepare myself for the good byes, thus: “’can’ memory to shelf”. Notice the ‘I usually…I often…” As a race of the humanity, self is the center, unfortunately.
Verse 2: William Shakespeare is right, “no man is an island.” It does not matter how hard we try to disregard the people around us, they are still apart of us, as we battle to move forward. Hint. Hint: “I thought of Kaitlyn”. I love the sound of Kaitlyn more than Kai, I think I’m going to call you Kaitlyn from now on.
Verse 3: For each and every one of us, there is a unique way of how and where we meet. To me, I met Kai way before we ‘raced to her locker’, but I would like to mark that ordained occasion as the start of our friendship.
Verse 4: Being born into homo sapient society, I like to classify people’s ‘story’ onto Plato’s latter, top being the best. Kai are one of those people. But, wait, I never even hear Kai’s story and how did she made the top list? What comes from the mouth is from the heart (Proverbs, I forgot the chapter and verse). Never, a time have I seen Kai degraded another human being; rather, what she says only cheers them up, at least for me personally.
Verse 5: I don’t have to say anything here for I believe that it is very self-explained.
Verse: Many have mistaken that if only I be a bit louder, he or she would notice me. This is so not Kai. I have to argue that silent is golden (like it’s my original idea…hahaha.). Kai’s quietness radiates louder than a jet breaking the speed of sound. Her peace gives me peace, e.g. whenever I’m like, ah, I need to get this done and ah, this too; in plain, when life is, “I just want to die.” Seeing Kai in the hallway reversed everything.
Verse 7: It’s true! I see God even in Kai’s very eyes. Just the way she dresses. Oh! My Gosh! Jesus is so there. Now, ‘the Holy Bile is her sword’ is a bit of a stretch for me because I have never seen Kai read her Bible; however, I am assuming that she actually does that at home because one day, I was invited to party at her house. I thought that it was going to be party party. Nope, I was wrong. To her, watching a documentary on Islam to better understand them so that she could be a better witness and praying is actually a party! How many of us consider praying as a party? To be honest, I’m not even close.
Verse 8: I thought about having this verse in place of the final one after working on the draft, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it cuz hero is a guy’s term, so I’m just going to add it here:
# Extra
In class, Kai is my hero
With her, I don’t get zero
Which is better than Nero
Kai does not like to waste precious time given in class, rather she work diligently and get work done. Whenever there is a group work opportunity, I always want to be with Kai or Kaylee Sherman. I hope the ‘vitamin’ does not offend you. I did it just to rythmeNow, onto St. Augustine. I am a lot like him, if you haven’t read Confession or City of God, I would highly recommend it.
Verse 9: As we all witnessed, Kai is so smart. Highest grades in class, and if I heard correctly, she scored 35 out of 36 in her ACT. I mean, who does that? Oh, by the way, the speech at graduation was amazing!
Verse 10: “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” Ecclesiastes 3:2-8. I know I know, you might be saying, what in the Sam hell is he smoking? Good question! If you haven’t notice, verse ten talks about leaving and [de]parting. I would like to add here that there is “a time to meet and a time to part”. And yes Kai, you have been such a big friend to me this year (don’t take BIG literal…hahaha…lol, thought you might caught my humor). But seriously, just seeing you smile, encourages me to keep going. As you might know, I enrolled FRCS knowing no body, except the name Nancy Parker, who signed my I-20.
Verse 11: As I have written over and over in thank you cards and yearbook signature, “I pray that graduation won’t be the cause of our-not-keeping-in-touch, thus I imbedded this onto the poem. Distances may be far, but Kai, don’t forget that we serve the same LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, receive heat from the same Sun light, look at the same moon—just different time and places. Some theologians have even gone on to say that we are standing under the same rain that Jesus stood under over 2000 years ago, and breathe the same oxygen molecules that he did. Usually, the nerdy kids are the one that lead the country, not the party one. Kai, you and I are pretty much on the same page. We may lead a completely different country once we are done with college, but we are still leaders. By then, I believe that we will have the funds to travel to see each other, if we are still friends.
Note: Okay! I agree, this has been way to long. Thanks for reading thus far. Oh, I personally hate #6 (don’t ask me why) that’s why I disregarded it when numbering the verses, notice?
by: Bora “Peter” Chheang
P.S. Originally, I was going to write only seven verses, but as I come to the close, there was too much more stuff that I did not cover. Seven, being God’s number that is. Now, there are eleven verses because # 11 is my favorite number. If you haven’t noticed, I wore #11 during basketball season.
P.S.S. Regarding the title! You could read in to it into two different ways. One, Here Without You, yes, we are done with high school, thus, we are not together. Two, HERe WITHout YOU, just read the capital letters, Kai, we use to go to school together, hint. Hint. You (HER) use to go to school WITH me (YOU). This could go both ways: you and me or you and your family as you head of to college.
