2018
The 2018 Poet Laureate is Tejaswini Sudhaker. Her poem is titled "Waiting to Swim."
The first place she ever felt real
was on the brick floor in the foyer;
June morning, we sat in the summer heat
Our sneakers and those neon, nylon shorts
gripping the floor, gripping onto this final
harbor;
High school was quickly approaching,
A sea of uncharted waters;
Reckless waves lapped at our feet
and we waited to dive.
The first place she ever felt incompetent
was desk #23 in room 413;
She sat in her first math class, watching
asymptotes and formulas swim on her
paper.
But it felt nice to know everyone was drowning
The first place she ever felt powerful
was lying 20 feet above ground;
The metal bars shifted with her weight
and the dull stage;
lights washed over her eyes,
An unfamiliar stillness settled over the empty seats
and the silence kept her intact
The first place she ever felt mute
Was standing behind a podium
A classroom of 92 eyes blinking up at her
She had so much to give
but her words sank beneath her doubt,
Never found their way out
The first place she ever felt heard
was standing in the bleachers
Wave by wave, we rose
a tsunami on the horizon
Our voices blending into one, we pleaded:
Kentucky students will not be silenced
and neither would she.
The first place she ever felt trapped
was in a class full of new faces;
Their conversations floated around her but
Even through the noise,
she felt empty
The first place she ever felt liberated
Was mid-May, middle of the gym floor;
Her thoughts overflowed with finals,
With grades and goodbyes, and getaways,
but tonight was about music,
Tonight, she held her instrument high
And note by note, she breathed
The first place she ever felt directionless
Was in her seminar class, senior year;
College banners littered the walls,
harbored every corner
Names and places and experiences
making her dizzy
Her mind was a broken compass, spinning,
and spinning
She wondered when it would ever stop
The first places I ever felt momentous
is right here.
We sit together, underwater
Waiting for our names to break the surface
Waiting to seize our future,
Waiting and waiting and waiting
This is the last place we’ll ever be high-schooler
This is the last moment we’ll hold our breath
together
Are you ready to swim?
-Tejaswini Sudhaker