In the salt and pepper night
of moon and shadows
I hear crickets play
calypso music in the reeds.
Alone tickles my skin with comfort
as I lay in the grass watching fireflies
and listen to the drumbeat of my heart.
Fifteen is a precipice I wish
to leap from to end the sound
of voices trying to change me.
Described with so many if’s,
“If she would
lose weight”
“If she wasn’t
such a tomboy”
“If she wasn’t
so broken”
“if she wasn’t
so odd”
I just want to hear someone say,
“She is exactly who she needs to be.”
There is a whole world in me
I travel with my pen…..
ink escapes lined with poetry
where words don’t have
sharp edges to hurt me.
It seems strange words are my savior
when it is words that cause me such pain.
©Susie Clevenger 2013
At Real Toads we were given a list of words by Timoteo to use as inspiration for our poetry. For some reason the word list took me back to when I was fifteen. Get Listed ~ Of Catnip & Moons
Comments
I know that longing. So many times in my deafness I wished to be what others wanted me to be. Instead I found the beauty hidden within the silence.
Beautiful sentiments conveyed here sweet friend. (Hugs)Indigo
I have a friend who nursed her mother through cancer, right to the end, with no help from her four brothers. Before she died, the mother was heard telling a friend, "I wish I'd had just boys."
My friend somehow got past the pain of hearing that. I think I might have shot myself right then and there.
K
Hank
when it is words that cause me such pain."
Strange, isn't it? And it is sad besides the insecurities breeding within oneself, one has to fight the external ones too. Ah, teenage. As strong as it is sensitive. Brilliant poem, Susie. :)