Writing: ‘Untitled’ by Fatima Aranda

This piece placed second for middle 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 Fatima Aranda
Ánimo Legacy Charter Middle School

Untitled

Let’s run away.
One sentence.
Only 3 words.
Yet for me this simple sentence has always been a part of my life.
Begging.
Repeating it over and over.
All for nothing , she never listened.
“He’ll change some day” is all she said
You never did.
So there I was.
Listening to the screams in the next room.
Listening to you make all those bruises.
Making her bleed.
Looking back i can’t help but wonder.
Do you have no heart?
Did seeing her delicate face fill with all those tears make you happy?
Seeing her bright smile slowly vanish.
How those beautiful eyes turned swollen and empty.
Regret never even crossed your mind after did it
But let me tell you father.
You certainly did regret it at court.
You regretted it at the hospital.
You regretted it after seeing her stale body next to an empty bottle of pills.
And you regret it now, in that cold cell with not a thing to do but wait.
Wait for your own death.
Imagine how different things would be if you hadn’t hit her all those years.
If you had let her live her life.
Just imagine because that’s all you can do now. Now that it’s all done.

With much contempt , your only child.