i cannot show my poems to anyone in my life.
well poems that matter.
only to one person in my life have i shown the things that matter.
and that one person didn't leave, didn't flee, or run away,
but encouraged me.
and so i submitted a poem about peace in the peace poetry contest.
and oh so many will read, and analyze, and judge it,
and the thing is i was content with it,
yet when i showed it to those few teachers, and was praised,
the content vanished away and replaced itself with self consciousness.
how is it that the things i am most proud of,
the things i care about most,
i do not seem to want to show to those who care?
is this, myself, protecting myself from getting hurt,
or simply myself being to cowardly to let someone who i will face everyday, judge the things that show my rawest emotions?