New Realities

Voices Home

UNTIMELY
Photo and poem by Eamon Costello, age 16

If you decide 
to stare out the window
You know what you’ll find

Empty streets

Empty sidewalks

Empty cars 

Empty stores 

Empty parks

Empty playgrounds

Empty bars

But what more 
is there to do
But wait and wait and wait
Oh wait! 
Your time is long gone
I’m sorry, my friend. 

LIGHTSTREAKS
Photo and poem by Matteo D’Aveta, age 16

the lemon tree casts its reflection
when i'm over, praying too long,
when i've stood at the window, 
watching the street, 
waiting for the lightstreaks
of my father or mother or grandfather
to round the bend through 
the harsh shadow of the streetlights 
and gently ease my racing.

JUST TWO WEEKS
Photo and prose by Melissa Antoine, age 16

At the beginning of the pandemic I was 14 years old. I thought Covid-19 was just another meme because the month before people were joking about World War Three happening, so I wasn’t worried at all. During late March I remember going home early because I wasn't feeling well and later that day I found out from my friends that I wasn't going back to school and we didn’t know when for sure. “Just two weeks,” they said. Two weeks turned into “just a month” that turned into the two, and then that turned into not going back for the rest of the school year.

I was scared. I missed my friends. I was depressed. I was alone.