This is a poem that my sister wrote shortly before her death. She was 16 years old.
I am but a creature of the earth, one among many;
I live to be loved and I give love in return.
I am understood; and I am misunderstood;
I am praised and I am scorned.
I long to cry out from within myself but none will hear,
For my voice is sealed within me.
Day after day I toil;
I dream of the place where work is no more.
There are sad times and happy ones, too;
There are days when everything goes wrong,
But life must go on.
My life is but short and my death oh so near,
And yet I wonder
why I am here…