#sixteen
tomorrow's
my
birthday
and i'm turning 16
but do you know
how many times today
i thought about
staying 15
forever?
freezing myself in time
and letting the dates
on my gravestone
read 2010-2026?
upwards of 10
(at least)
then i remembered
that it was the exact same place
i was a week ago
and a month
and all the way back in 2024
i thought about
all the things i would have missed
if the knot all the way back then
had been better
and i was permanently 13
the friends i never would have met
the discoveries i never would have made
and even the joy—
the oranges
the moments that
at least temporarily
made life worth living—
i never would have experienced
so i chose to live
to be 16
and i know
i'll be right back where i was
a couple days from now
because that's how the cycle goes
my brain
won't just magically stop betraying me
and i'll relapse again
like i did today
but the darkness
doesn't mean
there will never be light
so i refuse
to let my world end
in 2026
23h ago
Jun 2, 2026 at 9:50 PM UTC
again,
do it exactly the same;;
swoon for every cute girl-woman
who dared me by just passing
by my existence
with nary a glance
in the unending
hallways of high school
and think
ah ha!
bet she would like her
very own
love note,
and that is just one of
the many ways,
god
makes
creates
and
fabricates
his humans
into
poets
and bigger fools.
Apr 21
Apr 21, 2026 at 3:23 AM UTC
play your cards right and
shoot yourself with a nerf gun for laughs.
those cake crumbs and half-empty sprite cans won't last forever
but those videos on the internet will.
you were there tonight. (the party.)
and i will be there tomorrow. (the films.)
i was cleaning the house and writing the book
will you be doing the homework and raking the leaves?
am i missing out?
are you missing out?
is shooting yourself in the head ever fun?
is disappearing in a horror film ever fun?
is this feeling of the in-between
the missing out on parties put on by people you aren't friends with
is the wondering when you'll come home
is the questioning when you'll text back
is the adrenaline for when we'll realize
ever
ever fun?
Nov 21, 2025
Nov 21, 2025 at 11:43 PM UTC
Sixteen today, a sunlit affair,
A sky of promise, carefree and fair.
A heart that's light, a spirit that's bright,
A future unfolding, pure and white.
A world of wonder, a stage to play,
A thousand dreams, a brand new day.
With every sunrise, a chance to soar,
To chase ambitions, forevermore.
A bond of friendship, a love so true,
A circle of joy, a faithful few.
Grateful for blessings, for grace divine,
A life so precious, eternally mine.
Sixteen today, a gift from above,
A tapestry woven with threads of love.
With every breath, a reason to smile,
A sixteen-year-old, pure and guileless, for a while.
Mar 23, 2025
Mar 23, 2025 at 4:51 AM UTC
Sixteen today, a milestone they say,
But inside this heart, a storm does play.
No joy, no cheer, no spark in my eyes,
Just a heavy sigh, and silent cries.
A world of expectations, a mask to wear,
A smile plastered on, a facade to bear.
The pressure to be alive, to fit the mold,
A suffocating weight, a story untold.
Lost in the crowd, invisible and unseen,
A fading presence, a forgotten dream.
Yearning for connection, for someone to know,
But met with indifference, a vacant blow.
Sixteen today, a bittersweet affair,
A birthday wish for acceptance, for someone to share.
But for now, I'll carry this burden alone,
A sixteen-year-old, lost and unknown.
Mar 23, 2025
Mar 23, 2025 at 4:49 AM UTC
Sweet Sixteen Years
<••>
had to get the calculator
cause this brain refused
this math,
2024 - 2008 = 16
yearlong furlongs
a dustance existential
impossibility:
She selected me from the
millions of riffraf looking
for a living romantic love,
which perhaps while
not a complete miracle,
but something, that had
been as elusively beautiful
as a running back shedding
11 tacklers and well,
scoring a touching down
(n.b. it’s a Sunday)
a touchdown elusive
and once thought,
a deluded inconclusive
belief from the realm of
music and poetry,
an aberrant belief
in a life of mundane
and oft much pain
that periodically stubbed
one’s toes with streaks of
sparks, but never was carded
for one who had not
learned
the definition
of longer
lasting,
open ended,
unimaginable,
genuine
to expect, believe
that it was a
validity,
nothing but a
legal fiction
never to be a word in
my finishing diminishing
vocabulary
there will be no candlelight
dinner, no popping corks,
no mad jewelry hidden in refrigerator,
maybe just some
outshine lemonade icicle popsicles,
a modest treat
for an e-xtra oh-never-ordinary
travelogue with no final
destination penned in
blue-black ink
for the record:
she picked me out,
she came late to
our first date,
and fully agreed
on a third date,
that commitment
was a pressure
neither desired,
agreeing with a
hearty high five
so here she is,
always a present,
always an available
sujet for one more
onlylovepoem
to scribe, and
complain
how a poet goes
on and on and on
which is a reminder to self
to quit writing too much
when there is still a
tomorrow to add to this
poem
Dec 15, 2024
Dec 15, 2024 at 7:12 AM UTC
October 21, 2008
My birthday
As a kid I was always so excited
I had a list of everything
That I desired for my special day
But now I'm turning sixteen
I don't know what I want
I don't know who I am
And for the first time
I could care less if my birthday came
Or if it just passed me by
Like everyone else in this cruel world
I feel lost
Broken
I want to go back
To when things were simpler
I just want to be a kid again
Oct 17, 2024
Oct 17, 2024 at 2:03 PM UTC
So it is my birthday today
Though this day i feel no different than normal
Perhaps a little sad
As yesterday i had a bit of a conflict
But I won't let this person have control over my birthday
Today is supposed to be special
Though most things have gone wrong
I forgot my coffee this morning
And Spotify gave me the worst songs on my playlist
Still, today is my birthday
I am sixteen
It is a time to celebrate the sixteen years i have been struggling along
Tomorrow will be the same as yesterday
And today will be the only
I think of my favorite flowers
Red columbine, clematis, water lily
Trembling, mental beauty, tranquility
I think that if someone gave me a clematis today
I would cry and preserve it forever
I'd like to hide away
And sit with my poetry
And cup of coffee
Writing about the beauty of the world
That I cannot see
Feb 23, 2022
Feb 23, 2022 at 10:05 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Rod McKuen at a Garage Sale
We don’t know who Baby ****** and Tommie were
They sent each other notes and underlines
And colored slips of paper from page to page
In Someone’s Shadow (“Hardbacks 25 Cents”)
The exuberance of adolescent arcs
Reminds us of our long-ago callow youth
When we thought we had discovered something
In secretly sharing free verse in home room
And we had – indulging in forbidden lines
Is still good therapy for being sixteen
Jan 17, 2022
Jan 17, 2022 at 9:20 AM UTC
It's so effing sad
How things used to be
When the waves hit the shore
And we listened to its melody
It's so effing sad
How I thought I was your sea
You'd sail deep and hold me
You'd explore the darkest parts of me
How I wish I shouldn't have had you
How I wish I stopped you from happening
Now I'm lost at my own sea
I can barely find me
Mar 19, 2021
Mar 19, 2021 at 4:46 AM UTC
They discussed Prom and silly boys who talked big, but
couldn’t tear open a ******
They squabbled over pole-position in a race that didn’t matter- And
analysed events made cinematic in re-telling.
I leafed through a magazine:
One Girl’s Plan to Meet and MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (who isn’t a creep)
~How to dress to be taken seriously
Top Career Women Tell Their Secrets
~Hot spring fashion
The TRAP of Living Together
~CK One (selling equality)
For a moment I pictured myself applying lipstick, then thought better not.
It was all ********
I shoved the magazine back in my bag- with Tess, exam texts, and
a clean change of clothes.
The bus stopped right outside.
He made me tea, and I read bedtime stories to his kids.
After:
We drank white-wine in the garden, kissed and found peace-
Searched for stars in a sky the colour of storms.
Dec 31, 2020
Dec 31, 2020 at 8:45 AM UTC
Then
she
started wishing
a
doctor would inject morphine
into
his black heart
so
his
venomous tongue
could let her down slowly
Aug 16, 2020
Aug 16, 2020 at 10:07 AM UTC
What does life have in store for me?
Everything is coming together at last
At this point, I would be afraid,
but somehow I'm not,
Future is approaching
My personality changing
And I'm almost seventeen.
Wow
Almost seventeen?
I'm almost an adult and it's hard to realize this.
I've been taking life in the perspective of an adult for some time now,
but to become an adult to match my thoughts?
I might finally act my age.
I've got standardized tests to do
I can't falter
So many testings of different importances and knowledge levels are approaching
and I've been so lucky to have been able to take a chemistry course of my caliber.
But will I achieve my goal?
I'm content and feeling full.
a fullness that filled up the emptiness and anxiety pit inside me not more than eight months ago
Wow
Eight months ago?
I've been living in my childhood city for about seven months.
seven months.
these months made me somewhat more than my usual okay
they made me feel
normal
And that
Love is for me
And will be there for me
True.
My work ethic isn't how it used to be.
True.
My lack of influence and social acceptance aren't easy to avoid anymore.
Perhaps,
This is some kind of lesson?
a... twisted lesson that involves the backstabbing of new "friends"
they are
Funny,
Yet not.
Accepting,
Yet not.
Envy and stupidity
Ignorance
I'm not any better in their eyes
But I do not care
I've been humiliated all too many times
I feel
Anger,
Yet I shouldn't.
This very school was chosen according to my research.
So sometimes
I feel like I've made a big mistake
and that is all my fault.
But it's like there weren't any other options either
A family,
that is short on money and barely afforded their children to go to school.
Their story,
repeats of every year that a new grade level comes into the picture.
For as long as I've been in the 7th grade, I've remembered the struggle and the worry.
I'm so sick of this infinite loop.
So I will be the terminating condition
stopping it at its roots.
to destroy any chance of plant seed deciding to latch on to soil.
the world doesn't need any more dead flowers.
Jul 22, 2020
Jul 22, 2020 at 8:22 AM UTC
I’m 16
Now what?
When I was younger I had this vision of what sixteen year old me would look like and I’m nothing like her
Sixteen year old me in her head was loud and fun
She would dance on tables at parties at two am
She would be dating the love of her life and have all the friends in the world
She would dress in the latest clothes and she wouldn’t be scared to tell somebody off and stand up for herself or her friends
But
Sixteen year old me currently doesn’t go to parties and is definitely not dating the love of my life
Im trying to stay up with fashion and I succeed sometimes
I will stand up for my friends just not for myself but I’m getting there
However I still feel like younger me would be proud of
16 year old me
May 10, 2020
May 10, 2020 at 9:01 AM UTC
the fear of growing up
the days have passed, too fast
the years swirl around me like leaves in the afternoon breeze
maybe it isnt so bad
but growing up means to see things as it is
to know things as it is
and to feel things as it is
maybe im too young
maybe im not young enough
to understand
but im afraid of growing up.
Apr 28, 2020
Apr 28, 2020 at 2:20 AM UTC
sixteen years old
experiencing things i didn’t know i remembered
like arguing and calls to police
hushed whispers and calling whoever you can
not for them to help
just to get some advice
you don’t want to be a burden
and finding things you didn’t know you wanted until you got them
falling
hard
for a girl you know shouldn’t belong to you
and thinking for the first time
that she is worth a broken heart
that you’ve had this chance before but never have you wanted it
she’s worth more than you think she understands
she makes you slow down in a way most people can’t
and i’ve got trust issues like anyone else
but there’s that captivating feeling in her
that made me trust blindly
from one spur of the moment conversation
you don’t understand
i’ve written poetry about my unrequited lovers before
never have i understood the way the reciprocation would make me feel
i’m stumbling in what this is
inexperienced
she’s pretending to stumble with me because she thinks i’m worth it
i’ve never felt more worth it
but she’s no klutz
she’s a catch
in a simple sense of perfection
i told her once that she was good
in the simplest sense of the word
that she was the idea of it, the concept of all things encompassing positivity
she lets me say things like this to her
and understands the power behind the words “thank you” when you don’t know what else to say
that it speaks volumes when you’re speechless
in a way that i don’t
i have this difficulty keeping my mouth shut
thinking before i speak
she has this way of making me think
usually on my feet
that she’s had from the moment i met her
long before i could predict that i would fall for her
long before i would be oblivious to her doing the same
i realized
this is going to end badly
i realized
one of us is going to come out of this very, very beaten down
and she has her way of making me think
i thought
and i concluded
if we must i hope that it’s me
because from the moment i met her
i knew we could bounce off of each other
in unspoken words and hand squeezes
from the first conversation we had i knew
this is someone you trust with your favorite book as soon as you meet them
this is someone who writes in it like you have
in a black pen
and as you’re reading it back
you realize you are falling for her in this unfamiliar way
that you want to hang on to every word she says
that you want her to know how much you don’t know how to put into words
you want her to know that you still remember what she was wearing the day you first met
and you thought “oh. she’s cute.”
and when you tell her this
you’ll laugh when she tells you she thought the same thing as you
that she knew this was inevitable
i know there’s a lot inevitable about it
but i hope i’m the one who ends up hurt
because this is selfish
and this is not fair to her
and despite that
i never want to see her broken
especially not in pieces that i don’t know how to fix
for now
i can try to put aside this idea of oblivion
and live in
live on
experiencing things with her i never knew i wanted to
and always, always wanting to make her laugh
showing her songs that look like her voice
the synesthesia makes it hard to convey
but it’s like paints on a black canvas
mostly this beautiful blue
with purple undertones
like their own variety of northern lights
when she laughs
this shot of neon green shoots through it
i don’t write poetry often anymore
but she’s worth another attempt at it
she’s worth everything i never knew i had
and i’m not in love with her yet
but i’m getting there
she sleeps in later than i do in the mornings
i’ll never show her this
but i’ll try to have something for her to wake up to
whether it’s a meme or a song or anything else
i must emphasize
she’s worth the time put into selecting it
Apr 21, 2020
Apr 21, 2020 at 2:29 AM UTC
Sweet Centerless Sixteen
by Michael R. Burch
Inconsolable as “love” had left your heart,
you woke this morning eager to pursue
warm lips again, or something “really cool”
on which to press your lips and leave their mark.
As breath upon a windowpane at dawn
soon glows, a spreading halo full of sun,
your thought of love blinks wildly—on and on ...
then fizzles at the center, and is gone.
Keywords/Tags: humor, light verse, sweet, sixteen, never, kissed, lips, lipstick, puppy, love, infatuation, flirt, flirting, short attention span
Apr 14, 2020
Apr 14, 2020 at 11:09 PM UTC
I prayed that you would show up for me
but, oh, what a foolish wish
my sixteenth birthday, not a word from you
not that it's your fault
you're busy
i get it
but god how i wish
i wasn't waking up from fifteen
the year i met you
the year you changed me
the year that belonged to you is fading like a sweet dream
you wished me into
each year before your's came and went
but your's lingered
before finally passing on
without words
with empty promises
fifteen went quietly
softly
unlike it came
unlike i am
as sixteen comes into its own
Jan 22, 2020
Jan 22, 2020 at 10:10 PM UTC
today, i wake up wearing an old band t-shirt and i’m sixteen again / pulling jumper sleeves over my palms / keeping my eyes on my feet / earphones in / willing myself invisible / refusing to step out of changing rooms in anything that clings to my skin / flinching from mirrors and cameras / nobody wants to stay too long at the beginning of a cinderella story / before the lenses and makeup and hair-flipping confidence / before the boys who call you a frigid ***** for expressing an opinion start to slide into your DMs / saying “hey, you seem cool, i’d love to hear you talk about feminism.” / but they’d love get you drunk first / love to get funny girl / cool girl / beer-pong and dancing on tables and witty comebacks / always-slipping-out-of-your-hands / let’s-tame-this-shrew-wild-girl / like yeah give this girl a stage but stop her if she makes you uncomfortable / we like a damsel-in-distress, big-blinking-eyes-trophy-wife / not the girl who stood in between her best friend and the ones who mocked her for her body / not the girl with bloodied lips instead of red lipstick / grinning, saying, “you’re going to have to go through me.” / nobody likes an ugly girl with a mouth full of words / so you learn to swallow them / be prettier, shinier, smoother / show them a piece of glass instead of dagger / lie in wait to turn the tables because you still remember / what it’s like to be sixteen and forced to look at your body as a liability / what it’s like to be sixteen and told your anger is embarrassing / just another teenage phase
Dec 14, 2019
Dec 14, 2019 at 5:41 AM UTC
I had self esteem,
When I was sixteen.
It left with my teen's.
Jun 27, 2019
Jun 27, 2019 at 6:04 AM UTC
Nothing I have to be proud,
Sixteen candles, and one falls down
Sixteen dresses in that closet
I'm turning into one now.
Worn out,
Because I grew out,
I WILL shout
till I'm thrown
out.
May 12, 2019
May 12, 2019 at 7:33 AM UTC
In the motley woodland
Little that'll understand.
In four months
Rye ripens.
From squealing jigsaw
Dust settles.
Four carnations
Nailed to the keel.
Sixteen degrees.
Africa is warmer.
Sixteen erasers.
Darker hair.
In a freshwater lake
Usual trout.
In the March of the bulldozer
April is heard.
Mar 26, 2019
Mar 26, 2019 at 7:35 AM UTC
i never thought i'd make it to sixteen
the age was always something i thought only movie characters and people around me would reach
i thought i'd be gone by then
i didn't think someone would be able to ask me
"how old are you?"
and i would say
"i'm sixteen"
sixteen
"how old are you now?"
a relative or friend would ask
"i'm fift-"
then i would stop
"i'm actually sixteen."
sixteen
wow
i thought i would have been able to say it
i couldn't imagine mumbling those words
i've outlived so many kids
kids who actually wanted to live
sometimes i wish i could trade places with them
a kid who wanted and deserves to live here
Mar 19, 2019
Mar 19, 2019 at 9:09 AM UTC