Writing: ‘Inaudita Vox’ by David Esparaza

This piece placed third for high school writing submissions in the Ánimo Voices Writing and Art Competition, which invited students to consider a change they’d like to see in their community or the world and to convince an audience, through any genre of writing or visual medium, of the importance of this change. The competition was an opportunity to motivate, recognize, and celebrate our strong student voices through writing and art.

 

By David Esparaza
Ánimo Watts College Preparatory Academy

Inaudita Vox 

Life,

They take it for granted, He sees a future
with dirty skies, a future with scorching air, a
future with watery eyes.

Do they know that they too will endure this fate? 

Time,

It’s running out, Like a boa wrapped
around its prey, We live in a world coming to
an end, And we keep living a normal day. Do
people hear his cry to change their ways? 

Paradise,

We once had, Fragile beings with
catastrophic power, Animals die in vain with us
to blame, And in a desolate field, we hope to
see a flower. He looks around, what’s being
done? 

Lost,

Is the future, Where he can live in peace,
Instead he wonders how his children will suffer,
He sits at a pond, with dying geese. Have we
struck the midnight hour? 

Suffering,

Can be avoided, Oh humanity! Learn
from Faustus! It’s not too late! “We can still do
something”, he says, Uplift the world from this
sunken state. Who hears him anyways?  Oh sweet rain, once so pure, Tainted,
by our sins, Poisoning precious life.
We flew too high and our wax melted.
Earth can’t give us more time to
repent, Yet no one bats an eye to his
plea. Who is he?
He is me. Oh how sad life can be. Death is indiscriminate, it will come for
all, even our beautiful planet, but if we can make a change now, we can
worry about that for another day.  Inaudita vox, In
mundo enim mori.