The Worth of One

by Tatsuya Hodges

If you could see all that I can see in every part of me,
What would you stand to believe, to be?

In the many things that make people—
Sounds, trees, birds, bees—
What would you trust if your experience
Was not reality?

I know a question of existence is out of place,
Yet it is what humanity seeks to achieve—
On a quiet night, everyone alone, surrounded by space,
While standing in awe and fear at the seas.

For every neighbor, every parent,
Every sibling, and every lover,
We are united in one body
Yet can’t seem to understand each other.

Which is why,
On an Earth with 8.3 billion people,
Every one person’s life holds the weight of it all
Because they can think, they can feel, and ask the other—

If you could see all that I can see in every part of me,
What would you stand to believe, to be?

Poet Statement: I am a senior at Decatur High School, currently attending both Creative Writing and AP Literature. I think I'd like to try to step into art and see how far humanity's best attempt at self-expression can take me; we live, we die, we are forgotten, but hope that the endless sprawl of imagination we hold helps others tell their own.