My Voice Through Poetry

Enough 👊

Do you like to be sad?
Do you think you're cool, strutting around in your plaid flannel and ripped jeans?
Why are you still sitting there?
You can't admit that your mind is bare,
Disinclined to move from the spot you've been sitting in for hours.
Where is your diligence?
Did it take a walk and never return?
Did you throw it in the fire, watch it burn?
Are you a newborn child, unable to comprehend that I am stern because it is your turn to try?
I defy the urge to walk out that door every day.
I said goodbye to a simple life when I met you.
All so you can sit there and cry about the life I provided for you.
Get up and try harder.
It's not good enough.

Stop saying you're tired.
Do you need your brain re-wired?
Nothing traumatic in your life has transpired
Your life isn't over, you can't just retire.
The veins in your wrist are still pulsing.
Get up and try harder.

Stop cowering in the corner like a captive stray cat
You are not a foreigner in your own skin
No, you're just desperate for attention.
I refuse to let you waste your life away
No, you don't 'see in gray.'
Stop saying you're torn or broken or bruised
That every day, you feel that every heartbeat is a bomb detonating in your chest.
Get up and try harder.
It's not good enough.

You're playing a game
Life isn't a game,
It's a competition to see whose name will be remembered when you're gone.
But that's not going to be any time soon.
You'll keep growing; you'll see next June
And the month after that, and the month after that.
Get up and try harder.
It's not good enough.

And put down that pen!
Quit writing. Crumple your paper and throw it away.
Spit on your paper has more meaning.
You need to obey. Say 'yes' and 'okay'.
You think you're gonna be an author? You're funny.
Don't you know? You won't make any money.
Stop the rhyme, stop the verse.
Get up and try harder.
Not a single soul will ever care about
Poetry.

Let me have my beer
You're the last thing I want to hear
I refuse to listen to your excuses
You're not amusing, just confusing
Shut you mouth
You ignorant disgusting slut
Get up and try harder.
It's not good enough.

You're down here
When you should be up here.
Why aren't you up here?
With those of us who understand that
Writing poetry is nonsense.
You disappoint me.
You disappoint me.
Get up and try harder.
You
Are not good enough.

(Inspired by Maia Mayor's "Perfect")