You watch the world
Searching for someone to look like
To be like
To think like
You watch the world
Wondering where’s my place
Where do I fit
Who am I
When all the while
Others watch your world
Admiring how you do it
How you say it
How you think
Comparison is a thief
Stealing your sparkle
So you feel you can’t shine
Even though
You’re as bright as the stars
That surround you
A delicate golden thread.
Glowing with fondness;
Glistening with memories;
Shining with friendship.
Connecting each person
Until fate
In her jealous rage
Cuts the cord
A shroud of darkness settles on your shoulders,
A heavy cloak that weighs you down,
Wrapping you in misery.
Slowly, then all at once,
It consumes you.
The way day becomes night.
It seeps into your soul
Then nothing.
Numb.
Everyone tells you how to shrug off the shroud:
Remembering
Crying
Talking
Feeling
But it won’t yet fall from your shoulders.
It stays inside, a swirling black hole,
Consuming.
Drowning
Not in your tears
But in the world around you.
Feelings threaten to overwhelm you.
You feel you can’t breathe;
Not even treading water,
But sinking beneath it.
Grasping towards the surface,
Following those tiny bubbles,
Hope,
Upwards.
Until you see the surface,
Yet still unable to break through.
Your tears mix with the saltwater of the sea,
Disguising everything you feel.
A mask of a different kind.
Poems for the Imperfect 