Oh, those sixteen seconds; —
schoolings we learnt, stories on the
sixteen streets, where a few flowers
Would be daring enough to grow.
YOU!
Bystander to the narrative of six teens,
learning about life, through every twist
and curve. Take part in such an account,
for you too, to be flourished in what
Truths we learned.
I was sixteen; though that made
you feel like eighty-four in a concrete
jungle, where you heard stories of
its corruption, as it scarily roars.
The novel days, but with a broken
system of old. From feeling broke;
covering holes with holes,
— You could only tap into success by
the connections of who you know, and
they know; prior sixteen years. Henceforth
Why we all sensed being so old.
Or was it, "owed"
—dang, what youth could know?
But to be honest though, the feeling of it,
was so cold: a degree less than sixteen, for
Any flower to be frightened to grow.
As if the promise of an improved
tomorrow would never really show,
To say—"you head in your own way
and I'll be a head, ahead of you; thinking
up sixteen likely ways of where to go,
And how to go.
I was told a story by so and so,
who knew so and so, —that said,
So and so, about so and so, that a man
claimed this was the right time to sow.
He threw out his seeds; some that hit the
emotionless ground as cold sixteen stones.
Others were pierced by the cold’s thorns.
He spoke a lot of brave words and
eccentric quotes, that held with them
great wisdom and growth.
Some hard to swallow, some fell on
deaf ears, the rest gnawed by birds.
These teachings didn’t speak of being
owed, as we were told; but were
secrets he seemed to own,
That shone out of his soul.
I was sixteen, a nervous teen,
who gave this story sixteen seconds.
We were careless and obviously reckless
—a wonder of which gods ever forgave us.
Feeling cold as snow, in a place where,
it gets colder as the rain pours.
The man gave us sixteen of the most
profound words:
“Sixteen seconds of the Word,
your spirit grows, — sixteen
seconds of rain, and life will show.”
I was termed a flower in that story,
given sixteen words of advice
from a stranger I didn't really know.
And it was by age sixteen, the bud
Had started to grow.
I guess flowers are
the boldest of us all.
—on where, and through which
situation they choose to grow.
