Another Poem (Ace’s POV) (Cw for themes of overworking, hopelessness, and implied drug abuse)

Just a Little Longer

Just one more hour.

Just one more day.

Just a little longer and I’ll be finished.

Maybe this will go for a much higher price.

Maybe we’ll finally live comfortably after this.

I know that’s not true.

As long as our world operates this way, it’ll never come true.

I feel my head ready to burst.

I pop some ibuprofen, so I can stay productive.

“Get good grades, gain work experience, you’ll get into a good college and get a good job. You’ll be able to live comfortably then.”

I listened.

I’m doing what I’m told.

I study so I ace all my tests.

I work several jobs so I can go to college.

Yet my future looks bleak.

My mom did all of these so why are we struggling?

Is it my fault?

Yet I’ve done everything to contribute why is nothing working?

I did what I was supposed to, we both did?

So why then?

Why then, does a teenager have to work two jobs while their mother works two jobs just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads?

Nothing seems to work.

Nothing.

Am I doing something wrong?

My wrists hurt again, they feel like they’re falling apart.

My hands won’t stop shaking and I’m kept awake only by caffeine pills.

I feel cold.

My eyes feel like sandpaper.

Is this really it?

We are sold a dream.

A dream that as long as we work hard we can live comfortably.

Yet no matter how hard we work it’s never enough.

This place is like a gluttonous monster.

It eats away at our time, energy, willpower, and demanding we give it all our money, and it returns very little.

It’s never satisfied, never satiated.

“Just a little longer” I tell myself.

I know it’s not true.

No end in sight.

“Just a little longer”

All I see is black.

No light, nothing will save me from this hell.

I try and try but the world refuses to listen.

On my knees begging I’m still ignored.

“Just a little longer”

It’s a lie that keeps me going.

The only thing keeping me going.

As I remove years off my life from exhaustion and cheap food that probably hurts me more than helps me, I keep saying;

“Just a little longer.”

Just a little longer.