Pure ~ A Collection of Poetry

The One That Says The Truth

Sorry if this one's a bit depressing......

I go to a school where the scent of marijuana hangs in the bathroom,

making me choke and cough

on the smell of the slow suicide

of my peers,

a place where sexual harassment goes unnoticed,

but reminders of the dress code:

girls, cover you shoulders,

no shorts, no sandals

echo down every hallway.

I live in a town where the tea is too sweet and the air is too salty,

where passive-aggressive is a way of life

books are banned,

culture is burned,

and anything less than perfect is harassed,

beaten into shape,

or abandoned and forgotten.

I live in a state where education doesn't matter

where domestic violence is common,

and children play with guns, not dolls

secrets are expected, because

"remember, dear,

reputation is everything"

and no one blinks an eye at school shootings

I live in a country full of unspoken rules,

tighter than a corset,

deadlier than a python

don't speak out

don't think

keep your head down

just pretend you didn't see it

do anything to blend in

nothing isn't worth the money

don't be seen with outsiders

look down on differences

break any culture foreign from your own

a country where as long as we see freedom written on a piece of paper,

no one cares about

The Man Behind The Curtain--

pay no attention,

just move along now, honey.

I live in a world

where we abandon refugees to die

where money matters more than lives

where mass murder in the name of peace

is just another Tuesday.

I live in a world

where the 1% lives next to the families

starving to death because the system has trapped them:

unable to work because they're weak,

unable to become strong because they can't work;

and the only thing that separates them is a dirt road,

covered in blood-splattered azaleas

because as long as the air smells enticing,

no one will look too closely

I live in a universe where we are searching, trying to find new life,

getting more and more desperate to find hope because

we're all alone,

just us and a dying planet,

drowning in suicide notes

written in her favorite glitter-ink pen

and it's

all

our

fault.