Popcorn

when it comes true

when my dream is found, 

my goals reached, 

will I be fulfilled? 

will the future be everything I’d hoped, 

or a letdown

a saddening realization of truth 

I didn’t get out of bed this morning for twenty minutes

Lying in the dark in hopeful ignorance

Then I see my mother in the hall and I’m six years old again —

She has bad news —

Was it light in the morning,

when the fog was thick on the water,

and the world was cracking its eyelids at the dawn?

Did the thin layers of ice persuade you?

“Stop being a nerd”

“You’re the smartest kid in the grade”

“You’re a child prodigy”

“You’re an academic weapon”

Okay.

Fine.

Maybe I am.

But 

My grades

or winning a kahoot

Dear America,