‘Shooting Stars’

Eric Calloway

Shooting Stars

I could smell mud again
I liked it.
Same girl,
Under the same sun,
Walking in the same mud,
Shooting the same arrows.
But now,
Time had passed,
And the arrows had le their marks—
Red and purple scars
Decorating my hands.
I liked them.
They looked like stars.
They had grown with me,
Each session making them bier,
Shining brighter.
Archery always intrigued me.
Every time I’d shoot,
I’d leave a new mark on the board.
They looked like stars, too,
But there were many of them.
Looking like
The night sky.
In the early days
The stars on the board
Were far apart,
As if taunting me,
Staying away from each other,
Telling me,
“You’ll never get us together.”
But over time,
The stars began to gather.
Just like the scars on my hand,
The stars on the board
Had come together,
Not by force,
But by the slow, steady pull of time.
The stars on my hand
Were becoming permanent,
Shining bright,
Reminding me
at time itself had shaped me,
Just as it shapes everything.

Aarna Agarwal is a high school senior with a passion focus in STEM and Engineering. Outside of school, she is heavily involved in archery, the "Quest for Space" program for high schoolers, and advocates for women's involvement in STEM fields. In her free time, she enjoys listening to Taylor Swift.