Would You Believe?

By Nicola Koen

Posted on January 1, 2025

Cover Image Title: Silence in Winter

Cover Image by: Chris L.

Classification: Photography

Specifications: 4032 X 3024 pixels

Year: 2025

Location: Ontario, Canada

Would you believe

if I said it's your fault

Despite wanting the sun to rise at the end

Would you listen

If I said your job was to change the fate

Of those unwanted, though unseen

Would you remember if I told you

to turn left at the next street

Or would you keep the hockey ball rolling

On top always sister, sibling, best —

keep genes good

Would you believe if I said

Don't focus on them; the blind

Unwanted, invisible, ignored, 

not given the opportunity to 

Shine

Description: 

The poem is about a hockey coach preferring to pay attention to certain players while ignoring others. This continues over the following lines, where the coach does the same to the narrator. One can infer that the ‘unseen’ referred to more than one player, as there are multiple players on a hockey team and only one pair of siblings mentioned, implying that many people may have experienced unfair or unjust treatment but have refused to stand up for themselves. As the poem ends without punctuation, it suggests that the cycle continues and introduces a question to the readers: If injustice persists, is it partly because I chose not to see it or not to act?

[ Writing Editor: Kimberly ]