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May 27
poem 5 comments
Wrenegade

social ladder

‘Social Ladder’ Audio Recording - Young Writers Project.m4a
She clings
helpless
to her rung, 
never looking at
those below her,
always gazing up
to where they all want to be;
the rungs that hold
the rich
perfect
thin things.
The popular ones.

Her rung is crowded
with all her "friends" clinging to it
to her.

All they want is to move
up.
They tell themselves they will
be happy there,
at the top.
If they looked, they could see that isn't true.

And she spends 
all her energy
trying to climb,
but as soon as she takes a hand off
to reach the next rung,
the whole
ladder 
shakes
and she puts it back on.

don't climb, they whisper to her, you won't make it, you could fall.
But you can't stay here, 
they whisper to her, you'll never be happy, you can only be happy at the top.
you 
need to be at the top.

And she tries;
she starves herself
and loses who she is
to try to get to the top,
where everyone will look up to
her,
but it doesn't work,
and she stays
clinging
to her rung.

Slowly
she realizes 
she can never be happy.
Not on here,
not on the ladder.

And while their screams echo in her ears, she finally decides
to let go
to fall off the ladder
No! they yell at her, you can't! The fall will break you.  
You can't give up.  You need this.
You need the ladder.

No, 
she replies, I don't.
And it's not giving up.


She falls.

And realizes that
you don't
have to be at
the top
to
be
happy.
 
Audio download:
‘Social Ladder’ Audio Recording - Young Writers Project.m4a
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Posted: 05.27.18
About the Author: Wrenegade
AJ!
MSG / CONTACT
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Discussion

Comments

  1. melody22
    Jun 05, 2018

    WOW! I love that you really bring out the pressure of being popular all the time, and that it can do you more damage to be on top of the ladder! Really nice work, I love the way you wrote this.

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  1. Wrenegade
    Jun 06, 2018

    thank you--both for the compliments and for taking the time to read it and comment!

    AJ!

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  1. gg
    Jun 07, 2018

    Nicely done, Wrenegade. And nice hearing your voice, too.

    Thanks so much for sharing this and I agree with Melody, it's an imaginative and painful expression of the pressure you guys face.

    YWP founder. Current work: Instagram, Mastodon and https://geoffreygevalt.com
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  1. otteranna
    Jun 23, 2018

    I'm crying as I listen to your voice, and I think that YOU have done an amazing job of falling confidently of the ladder.
    That is something I think we all wish that we could,
    somewhere inside us,
    escape it all.
    But then we think, oh no, that's just not possible,
    as we become scared,
    of what is there, of falling,
    never realizing,
    that there is only, things to be scared of, on the ladder.

    There is a bottom on the ladder, but there is no end to who you can be and who you are viewed as, when you are not on the ladder. And I think that is incredibly vital information, that I think very few people will ever be aware of, and even fewer will be brave enough to act upon, so I want to thank you for sharing this information, and giving everyone who reads this poem and hears your voice a chance to act upon it. There is never just one option.

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  1. PeachesMalone
    Jan 27, 2019

    Whoa. This is really...wow. Really well done, accurate, and painfully true. Good heavens. And I definitely agree with otteranna, you have done a lovely job of falling off the ladder, even though it's hard. Thank you.

    "The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think."
    -Harper Lee

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