Michelle Lo
When we first met, my heart fluttered with a million butterflies.
When you said goodbye, my eyes burned as I cried.
You always said “I’ll love you forever,”
But where are you now that my heart is in severs?
I was too young and was too foolish
So I opened Pandora’s Box and loved it;
Despite all the miseries that you gave me,
The worst evil of all was the hope that you had left me.
Blinded by hope—evil incarnate,
I kept loving you though my pain was silent.
When you said goodbye I should have been happy;
Despite the pain you had given me
I still loved you completely.
As I sat upon my empty throne,
I had never felt so alone.
When my friends said “It’s for the better,”
I saw you smile with your friends and I wondered if you regretted your errors.
The “sorry” you gave me will always mean nothing
Because you will never know the pain I was confronting.
The night you left me the moon beamed as the city was asleep,
So I cried silently as my heart pounded like drums—and screamed.
Michelle Lo, a sophomore at Carlmont High School, has been writing poetry since 8th grade to express her feelings and relieve stress. She brainstorms about emotionally distressing topics in her life. She writes her emotions on paper, carefully choosing the words to create rhyming stanzas. Lo uses Google Docs and rhyme.com to help with writing, making it much smoother.
Lo’s poem, First Love, depicts a personal but universal experience when dealing with your first love and heartbreak. The poem showcases the raw emotions felt when betrayed by a loved one, but also that despite the pain, love still lingers. Lo expertly made connections to Pandora’s box because she loves Greek mythology, and it represents how her friends warned her of the dangers. However, she still stayed with him out of hope for better days.
Lo hopes the reader “can resonate with the poem in some way–maybe a crush or unrequited love.”
Art Showcase Club 