in math class today we
learnt about areas, surface areas
and volumes
and the teacher told us that volume
“is the amount of space an object takes up in this
world
be it animals or inanimate objects or
humans”
and I listened
and regurgitated his words with black ink on paper
and then he focused his attention to this this kid in the back
–
asleep, breathing heavily, snoring –
and woke him up with a smack across the head
“you are an oxygen thief!” he booms,
“wasting your time just breathing
and not processing anything!”
and I listened
but instead of regurgitating his words, this time I
churned it around in my head
and it hit me that maybe the space I’m taking up right now
is useless
and could be taken up by someone better (the list could
go on)
and that I am an oxygen thief,
wasting my time just breathing and not processing anything
staggering through my life blindly with no sense of direction
inhaling air when I don’t deserve to
when someone needs it more than I do
someone whose volume is a nice round number with no decimals
-j.t.
