I wrote a poem
And it was on white paper
With black lines
And I called it
Happy
And that was when it was Spring
And my friends came over
And when my father was with a nice lady
Who made me laugh
And my mother found a good man
And he was sort of my dad
And a boy moved in down the street
And he was sweet
And my mom made art
Great paintings
And I was happy
I wrote a poem
And it was on yellow paper
With green lines
And I called it
Change
And that was when it was fall
And my brother got into trouble
And when my father was with a rude woman
Who didn’t like me
And my mother was with the same man
Who couldn’t see us quite as much
And the boy down the street
Kissed me
And my mom got busy with work
So she couldn’t paint much
And things were okay
I wrote a poem
And it was on white paper
With blue lines
And I called it
Sleep
And that was when it was winter
And I rarely saw my friends
And my father was with a mean woman
Who ignored me
And my mother argued with her man
And I didn’t get to see him much
And the boy down the street hit me
But I never told
And my mom stopped painting
And the canvases collected dust
And I was always crying
I wrote a poem
And it was on crème paper
With flower petals
And I called it
Nothing
And then was when it was night time
And I never saw my friends
And my father got married to that mean woman
And moved far away
And my mother was always quiet
And her man left us
And the boy down the street raped me
And said I could never tell
And my mom put her paints away
And she drank all the time
And I stopped speaking
I wrote a poem
And it was on white paper
With no lines on it
And I called it
Help
And that was when it was dawn
And everyone was sleeping
And my father
Would never know I was gone
And my mother
Wouldn’t miss me
And the boy down the street
Won’t find me
And I grabbed my mother’s old bag
And put away my things
And walked out the door
