Cymbals 2020

When I Was No More Than Five
My Life at Five
When I was no more than five,
I thought to control the world,
Have it wrapped around my finger,
Amazed at the power I could unfurl.
I wielded my curiosity,
And stuck my finger in a hole.
But that one day,
The world said no,
And trapped my finger in this hole.
The ring-shaped round
Wasn’t planning on letting go.
It grasped my finger
For as long as it could hold.
The ring began to tighten,
And my finger started to grow.
Its color changed from pink to blue,
As I tried to loosen its hold.
Illustration by Yusra Rashidzada
Suddenly it came loose,
And deciding to call a truce,
It dropped my finger into open space,
Back to where it was in the first place.
But then, to my dismay,
I quickly learned that day,
That not everything in the world,
Can be curled,
Around my little finger.
By Melanie Hagen
16