Poems straight from the heart

“This Valentine’s,” Rota High School senior Sheryl Villanueva’s entry to the 2nd Annual Valentine Sengebau Poetry Competition, outshone 10 other poems from six high schools in the CNMI to win the senior division grand prize. Madison Smith, a 7th grader from Saipan International School, bagged the 1st place in the junior division. Her poem titled “My Discrimination” bested three other junior entries. The poetry competition was held Feb. 28 at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe. Below are the two winning entries:

This Valentine’s

I’ll never understand how you could just leave

Without hesitating even for a moment to look back at me.

I’ll never understand why you could just let me cry

And see right through me not knowing how much pain I feel inside.

I’ll never understand why you can’t feel what I feel,

And most especially why you say our love was never real,

Because I know I loved you with all my heart

But now my whole world is falling apart.

Like the last rose I’m wilting and dying,

And everyday there’s something reminding

That I once had you in my life to love and to hold

And here I am still painfully trying to let you go.

Now you belong only to a chapter from my past,

A story of a love that will never last.

But I’ll never understand why you left that day,

Though I tried my best to convince you to stay.

You have never left my thoughts and my dreams

And every night I still feel you right next to me.

I didn’t want to stop you, it was your own choice

And I didn’t have the courage to use my own voice

To tell you that I’ll love you always

Today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my days.

I will never understand why you can never be mine

Most especially why you left me this Valentine’s.

—Sheryl Villanueva
11th grade, Rota High School
* * * *

My Discrimination

It is a burden
An endless pain
To be pushed down
To feel so lame

To be so dark
Is the Devil’s curse
To look in the mirror
It’s even worse

My choice, my freedom
Yet there is none
Will there ever be
A time to come
When black and white
Can act as one?

Prick us, and we will bleed
Tease us, and we will cry
Beat us, shoot us,
And we too, will die
We’re just the same
The white and I

To be so black
To rank second best
To feel unlimited
To be oppressed

To be so dark
The Devil’s curse
To be shoved down
Makes it even worse

But, I will lead my people on
Marching onward ‘till the dawn
“Abuse no longer!”
For this I will fight
Marching onward
Through the night

This I will do, until the day, if it will come
When black and white, can act as one

—Madison Smith,
7th grade, Saipan International School