Vulnerable

At school

we're doing a poetry unit.

"Oh cool, we write poetry all the time!"

My friend says.

What we didn't realize, though,

was that the teacher turned on the tap

to our inner selves

and let it flow out

onto paper,

documents online,

until we were

empty

hollow

dry.

My poetry doesn't come out right

at school

and why would we feel

comfortable

in such a hostile environment?

Even the teachers hate our classmates.

Why

should we express our

deepest selves

in an unsafe environment?

Everything goes wrong at school

when I'm vulnerable.

Calico Frost

VT

13 years old

More by Calico Frost

  • Stuck

    Each poem

    each message

    deleted

    one

    after

    the other.

    The words don't flow freely anymore,

    now slow and sticky

    not flying out my fingers in their regular way.

    I can't make it work

  • Lost

    The day I lost my youth completely

    the sweet scent of childhood

    swept away by the sharp,

    tangy,

    sensation of adolescence.

    I have chased after my hopes and dreams

  • Emotions

    As my parents would put it,

    in a funk.

    As my friends would put it,

    depressed

    or

    tired.

    How I put it,

    aware of real life and frustrated and upset.