Enough

you're too young,
they all say.
their voices echo through hallways,
creep into the tiniest
crevices 
of my brain.
you're too young,
you can't be anything,
do anything.
you're so young,
it's so cute that you're trying to 
be anything,
do anything.

their words make me
look back 
and think,
maybe i can't
do this.
make me
scribble over
my work
because it doesn't
feel like enough.
nothing is enough
when people know
how young you are
and think that is
a fault
instead of a virtue.

sometimes i wonder,
if people could hear the words
in my heart,
would they still think i was
too young?
or would they
finally
take me seriously
as a person,
a human,
a writer,
an artist.
or do i just have to wait
until i am a true adult
for people to believe
i can do things?
that i can be
everything they can be?

will anything
ever be
enough?

star

NH

15 years old

More by star

  • Curl Cream

    I have been told

    To put curl cream in my hair

    Upside down, eyes 

    Straining against the ceiling light,

    Curls straining toward the tile floor,

    Bunching.

    I will smell

  • Dress

    I'm wearing the same dress I wore last year, on an evening that felt like moonlight even though the sky was still a milky purple-blue by the time we left, arms linked, laughter spilling over each other and turning the air fragrant, because back th

  • Lonely Rhymes

    Today I thought I looked pretty

    It must have been a trick of the light

    I can't fall asleep in this city

    I wish that you'd come stay the night.

     

    Last week I talked to you for hours