Dayna Lellis: Telling Timeless Truths

Your Value  
 
Instagram followers 
Twitter retweets 
Facebook likes 
Snapchat views 
Numbers we use 
To quantify 
#Popularity 
#Beauty 
#Wittiness 
#Worth 
These numbers mean 
#Nothing 
Compared to the people 
In your life 
Yearning for quality time 
With you 
They don’t need numbers 
To see your value 
  
 
Emotional  
 
We develop strong arms, 
carrying around emotional baggage 
for months, even years.  
We mistake this for strength.  
 
We weaken our grip on our baggage,  
opening it to reveal  
its untidy contents to others. 
We mistake this for weakness. 
 
 
May Day 
 
Unnecessary clicks, swipes, and likes 
are taking away  
precious seconds,  
minutes, 
hours, 
days 
of our lives,  
of our budding dreams. 
“Just a little longer, okay?” 
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” you say.  
Tomorrow is growing impatient. 
Tomorrow is ready to bloom today.  

 
Two Vows 
 
I’ve walked this path for eternity. 
Its minutiae are etched into my mind.  
One random day, to my surprise, 
I notice stairs that reach the sky.  
 
As I ascend, I glance below.  
I see paths that swerve, 
with shadows galore. 
 
Others appear straight 
with a sunlit glow, 
but on closer inspection  
they have bumps as well.  
 
I search for mine.  
It takes some time. 
Its gentle curves 
are touched by light.  
 
As I descend,  
I comprehend 
how drastically different 
our paths can be.  
 
I’ve made two vows: 
appreciate my blessings,  
and treat others compassionately.  
 
 
A Grain of Sand and a Galaxy 
 
A grain of sand and a galaxy.  
One reminds me to see 
the beauty in the mundane. 
The other, the beauty of the unknown.   
 
 
Everlasting Rainbow 
 
Hatred is seeing the world  
in black and white.  
I refuse to let hatred creep in  
and distort my vision.  
I yearn to see 
aquamarine and jungle green,  
ivory and charcoal gray,  
amethyst and cocoa brown,  
and other glorious tints and shades.  
Kindness is seeing an everlasting rainbow.   

***

Dayna Lellis graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 2013 and Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2014. She works as a teacher in New York and writes in her spare time. Several of her poems have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Valley Voices: A Literary Review, Voice of Eve, and The Voices Project.