You know you're small when
Your sister's friends say "at least
I'm taller than her"

And when your sporty
Friend says "hey, you weigh the same
As my deadlift weight"

And when your parents
Always send your little sis
To reach the top shelf

At the very least
You're never be too big for a
Bed or car backseat

You've said "it can't happen here" for so long
Yet even you know that's just wrong
For no matter the place
The time, or the race
If unchecked, it can always come along

A hot, humid hill overseeing a river
Beautiful as heaven, but don't try to be a swimmer
Tons of wildlife, but a poisonous dinner

A country close by but so far away
Traffic alone makes up half of the day
For those who want room but not time to play

Museums galore and libraries for all
Most of America's internet is held a few miles off the mall
But the most desired information is behind cash and legal walls

Come a D.C. summer you'll be thunderstruck
Being able to live here costs all your luck
You'll need enough cash to buy food to fill a truck
The best places in town don't cost a buck

It's cold outside, like the tip of a dog's muzzle
It seems like a good day to stay in and cuddle
It also seems like the wind in the air
Invites the intrepid to run out somewhere
So whether you snuggle indoors or trek outside
Good luck to those at the sun's low winter tide

Mom, why do you say
"You were such a happy girl
What's with you today?"

There were happy parts
But childhood was also where
All of this stuff starts

I didn't hide from you
The fact that I was bullied
And teased by the school

I couldn't hide it
When I slammed down a desk, and
When my tooth was chipped

Maybe I didn't say
That going to sixth grade made
Me dread every day

I didn't talk of
All my plans for taking off
Like a trav'ling dove

I guess you only
Saw my backyard play and trips
That's when you saw me

But much of the time I
Looked at the birds in the sky
And wished I could fly

You don't know how much
I wanted to run away
From my school and such

But you do know
About the times I got hit
By classmates long ago

They told you about
All the times the other kids
Made me scream and shout

So you can argue
Whatever you want, but your
Favorite point isn't true

Middle School:
Somebody swears
Kids jump out of their chairs

High school:
Everyone swears
Nobody cares

There's a reason why
Its called the concrete jungle
When the crossing gaurds whistle
And the trains rumble

But nothing brings out
The similarities more
Then sitting in a tunnel
And hearing a car's roar

Or sitting in a tunnel
And hearing the howl
Of six police motorcycles
In a motorcade prowl

When it comes to making new friends
I have three methods to achieve those ends:

You can join a club, site, or organization
To find others with similar inclinations

You could wait for a sociable one to come by
And follow them once they take you by their side

Or you can join in on a string of crude jokes
And make friends with your fellow weird blokes

People say fight club couldn't exist
That fighting like that wouldn't go missed
But I have contrary evidence, for those who seek
The second week of school has been nicknamed fight week

What would you say
If your poems came alive
And the dream you had
Became real life
What would you do
When someone asks
About a small mark
You were trying to mask

Let the wild animal
You feel like inside
Come out tonight
You don't need to hide
Wether you croon quietly
Or shout at the moon
The time of our freedom
Will arrive soon
Tonight we can run
Tonight we can prance
Tonight we will fly
Tonight we will dance
In the cover of night
We are free to transform
Into our true selves:
The ones who don't conform
We will hunt
We will play
As we can not
In the day
We will be free to say
"I like being this way."

Why has the word "trigger" become such a joke
Why do you giggle about it with your blokes
Why is it that you joke about it thoughtlessly
Frightening those affected away from the help they need

There's a little voice inside my head
Telling me all the places I could be instead
And every day, the more I grow
I yearn and ache to get up and go
I keep on smiling, like I'm having fun
But you have no idea how much I want to run

Some say the net is
A corrupting influence
On modern day youth

But keep in mind that
Socrates said the same of
The written language

My two cents in this
Is that the web is a tool
The most powerful

For with it we can
Whole new worlds and cultures that
For else wouldn't be

We can create minds
Artificial, but like us,
To explore this world

We can spread the word
News is real time, and we
Have a say in it

However, this can
Push people to their own deaths
War, or to ******

With so much to know
Falsehoods are also present
In this shifting world

But in the end, this
Is info's greatest tool yet
In history's time

Time and time again
From writing to printing press
This change has been good

So, in the end, we
Now have information's best
Tool in our hand's palms

Come what may, but I
Have some hopes for the future
Of this little web

I keep telling myself to wait
Wait for another two years
Years have passed yet little has
Has anything changed at all?
All of my life has turned upside down
Down the line will I regret this?
This is who I want to be now
Now I must wait to be independent
Independent and free and myself
Myself, personally, I'm just confused
Confused about who I am
*Am I what I should be?

Someone once said
That fear always works
It's sad, but it's true
So true that it hurts
I wish I were free
To choose who I meet
But mom always told me
To stay quiet on the streets
What if that guy
You met online
Is a hacker-*******?
In all this fear
I'm starting to wonder
If living is worthwhile

The state of the union
Is one of fear
Keep your religon close
And your race dear
We fear terror and crime
We run and hide
But the true monsters
Are the ones inside

Someone once said
We should only fear fear
Because it's the root of our problems
That much is clear
The news
Whips the mob
Into a state of panic
And convinces us
That any change
Will be just catastrophic

The state of the union
Is one of fear
Keep your religon close
And your race dear
We fear disease and shortage
And we can't relax
And no one around
Knows the real facts

I know
That I'm not
Immune to this, either
I'm losing things
I was taught
Would always be there
And honestly
This girl
Is the last one who should talk
I could be called anxious
I can say it
But can I walk?
But even to
A shy, nerdy
Girl like me
The media's
Fear-mongering
Is plain to see
But the media
Only reflects
What polls say we want
So maybe society
Needs to check
What it flaunts

The state of the union
Is one of fear
Keep your religon close
And your race dear
We fear each other
And the outside world
But maybe one day
We'll learn to be bold

When my mom starts shouting at everyone
When my dad disagrees with something I secretly like
When my sister calls me a ***** (I  can be a real **** to her sometimes)
Music is my closest family member

When I haven't seen my friends for two weeks
When all I my texts go unanswered
When I say I'm a homebody because I can't find anyone to hang with
Music is my best friend

When Trump and Brexit happen in the same year
When terrorism appears in the news again
When teen suicide deaths exceed teen car accident deaths
Music is my comfort

I am of the opinion
That throwing shade will always be
Best carried out if the other
Is left wondering what you mean

And though I don't do it too often
I've done it to a certain degree
In a project, I dissed school with Emerson quotes
And, in the end, our group got over a B

I accidentally
Befriended the third mayor
Of a Chilean town

It seems like a new point
For the human race
With the first political protest
In outer space

I walk along
A rainy nova street
Beneath a lilac umbrella

And through the trees
I see shimmers of cool grey
Through the mist

And I have
A familiar feeling

And suddenly
I'm not in nova
The land of traffic jams and crazy schools and swampy heat

I am walking down a street in Howth
A castle behind me
In the cobbles to the street

And in that moment
I am thirteen
And running along
With my sister and grandma and grandad
Hoping we get to the DART station on time

In that moment
I hear birds chirping
Cars running
And the soft, lovable patter
Of rain on leaves

The magic of a flashback

"That was like tripping
On acid." "I loved that when
I was ten" I said

"Well, that would explain
Quite a lot about you, then"
My friend mumbled back

Who knew that you could
On two hours of sleep, and
Walk miles all day

Sitting out of dance
We realized that we were
"***** emo" teens

EPCOT, in the end
Is half Thinking Day
Made professional

Also, my dreams are
Apparently far too weird
To have been healthy

Follow your dreams
Unless they're weird
Stand up for yourself
But don't start a fight
Be yourself
Unless you're different
Belive in yourself
But authority is always right

She speaks in rhyme
Cadence keeping with time
Her words flow out in verse
Creating a universe
Her mind builds sculptures
That reflect while cultures
Her gaze can amass
Ideas for a canvas
She knows stories by rote
She never misses a note
She creates upon what she veiws
Artists, she's your muse

How low
Do you want me to go?

How much further
Do you think I can sink?

Do you wish me
To lower myself
To the level of a beast
Because I can do that

Be warned, good sir
That if you push me that far
I can be quite dangerous
Dangerous enough to ****

You don't think I could?

I bet you don't think
That it's possible
To **** a man with only your nails

Or that it's possible
To tear open a man's throat
With one's nails and teeth

But it is possible
And if you push me that far
I will not hesitate to such things

So I will ask you
One more time:

*How low do you want me to go?

I'm pretty sure the school needs more windows
Because it's entirely possible to go
For a day between thanksgiving and Valentine's
And never once, in your classes, even realize
That the sun orbits above our globe

It was a strange word on my lips
Staring at the beautiful blue stalk
"One dollar a stem" the sign said
The way it rolls of the tongue when you talk
One buck out, I headed back
To the place I stayed alone
It was too quiet, empty, and sterile
But it sure as hell beat staying home

I placed the little mourning stalk
In the place that she used to sit
She and I never really looked or talked
But somehow, her absence is amiss
So I took a plastic water cup
And those flowers of the evening sky
And in that hospital, like room
I would sit and ponder why

And though I felt alone
And isolated from it all
That drooping stem of delphinium
Made the room feel a little more calm

Because I knew things weren't
Perfect as they stood
But between this and my house
I'd stay forever if I could
But stay forever I could not
I had only one week left
So I buckled down, goal in mind
To make it the best week yet

Delphinium- the name of lonliness
The sound of wonder and fear
The word of friendship and adventure
Oh how I wish you were here

Sometimes the silence
Rings as far in the air as
The echoes of shouts

                           But other days, it's
     The raucous cries of the crowd
            That make the earth quake

         Pause or performance
   The parts worth remembering
              Echo in my mind

When I was a little girl
Playing with my rocket toys
I was fascinated and confused
By the world of boys

I told my mom what had appeared
The boy's odd ways and such
She said "honey, boys will always be weird
But when you're older, you won't mind so much"

And as I've gotten older
I've certainly grown to see
When it comes to the other gender
I know exactly what she means

It's
A pity
That I can
Stare down a drop
Of beaded water
Pace these same halls for hours
Chef Ramsey vids end to end
But that I can't focus
Any such efforts
So that I can
Do the things
I really
Want

This place is now an empty shell
A remnant of my changing self
A colored, gilded chrysalis
That hides what beneath is amiss
And yet I still feel this passion
But in a muted, far fashion
As the strange lights overhead drone
A growing des're to go home

"You shouldn't go there, young child,
For there are things I'd rather you didn't find."

I agreed politely and smiled
And thought "If only you could read my mind."

I permeate
My presence surounds the land
Regardless of the nation
It is under my hand

I fly
My parts speed around
Creating the wind
Felt by those on the ground

I combine
With sunlight and water
I make earth's food
And with heat, I make fire

I sustain
All men need me to live
And they leave this earth
When I am not there to give

Beware of leaders
Who promise it all, for you
Will end up with *none

If I can't dance, I don't want to be
A part of your revolution
And if I can't laugh in heaven
I don't want to be in God's nation
Our favorite quotes show more about us
Than they do the people who wrote them
And if you want to see a change in the world
Become that change, then

Bug spray smells better
Once you start to think of it
As camper's perfume

As the day's sunlight begins to lack
I come closer and closer to the crack
For though I swore not
It seems to be ought
What hell will it be to go back