a new terrain

There’s a small girl sitting in a box
With her legs crossed and her mouth shut
She’s glancing around with shy in her eyes
And shame on her bashful brow

She’s not comfortable just sitting there
Taciturn, waiting her turn
To let herself out of her cage
Out of her one cell maze some people call home

She’s timid and tiny and easy to push around
Because she’s convinced herself that she is small
I mean after all, no one wants to be big in this day and age

We’re all starving ourselves to keep thin
…We’re all taking less in
And we’re getting less out

No, nobody wants to shout
Nobody wants to turn heads to leave their face turning red
Embarrassed of who we’ve become
Because we’re not becoming much
… We’re becoming much less
Than what we’re capable of

A girl is sitting behind a desk
Ankles crossed, pencil drawing a sketch
She’s lost in a world of dreams
Where she can color her whimsy true
Without having to do much of anything

She’s satisfied half of the time
When the picture paints itself pleasing
Yet she finds herself pleading for freedom
From the nightmare that haunts her heart

Oh, but it’s so much easier to just defer
The nightmare for a while
To let ourselves smile with the dream
And just pretend there’s no need to wake up

So she’s sold herself on the idea of wealth
Through both the sunshine and the rain
While failing to see the opportunity
Shining from a new terrain

What about that kinky girl with her hair let down
Who frowns because she’s not afraid
To show it when she’s sad?

She laughs so hard that she loses her voice
And loves so much that she loses her heart
But through every lost particle
She finds a new start

See, with freedom she found that expression is exponential
And once she really got going
There was endless potential
Impossible to count or hold
Impossible to try to mold
Because what she became was a limitless self
A raggedy Anne without a shelf
And without a need for one

It was once the girl broke free from the box
It was once the girl woke up from the dream
It was once the girl was not afraid to scream
It was once the girl said “I am me
With my life in my hands”
It was then that she dropped any former plans
And began truly to live.
-yours truly.


the last stanza somehow didn't show up on the copy i printed out to read at the arts fest, so here it tis.