I’m the girl who worries my parents
But not in the right kind of way
Not glitter and lies and slammed doors,
Just quiet and fading away.
No running barefoot through streetlights,
No eyeliner smudged into sin,
Just therapy chairs and soft voices
Asking where I’ve been.
I want the chaos of girls in bathrooms
Laughing too loud at the sink,
Daring each other to break something
Before they can stop and think.
I want boys my parents don’t know,
Cheap perfume and stupid dares,
Not another night with old dead poets
And my same safe prayers.
They never check if I’m sneaking out,
They never worry about my clothes
They just watch me like something fragile
Nobody quite knows.
I’m the girl who worries my parents.
But not like the girls on the screen.
They think I’m breaking quietly
I wish I were breaking yet freed.