My Attempts At Poetry

Once

That’s all it took,

All that was needed,

Once to accept his offer

We were only going as friends…Right?

Once for his chapped lips to crush into mine,

Once for the door to slam shut,

Leaving my dignity and pride out in the cold.

The stick trembled in my sweat streaked palm,

Clutching the thing that determined my future.

The smiley face mocks me,

As if I am a thirty-something woman hoping for it,

Hoping I will be able to finally have kids.

But I’m not.

I’m a seventeen year old girl, who a week ago had a future,

More than changing diapers and working three jobs.

It will hurt,

The first thing my mother says to me.

She doesn’t punish, scream or make me get rid of it,

She cries, her tears are the last drops of my future,

Leaking to the floor.

The day the baby comes I will leave my future behind, he or she will be my future. I will love it enough for the both of us, because I was just a “good time” for him.

My child will have manners something no one had ever taught him.

*this is the poem version of the story I have started Once*