No one told me that it’s not okay for a boy to cost you

Your peace

Of mind

But they did say it was okay for him to take

A piece

Of your heart.

But the thing is,

I can’t seem to get it back.

No one told me that my heart

Or my body,

Isn’t an overdue library book.

That someone can just take,

And not return.

 

No one told me that

The pill, amongst other things, are things.

Because I grew up

In a house where it was okay to say the n-word

But not to swear.

But I swear that I’m okay

Though no one ever told me

It’s okay to not be.

 

No one told me

That you don’t need a man to sweep you off your feet

But it’s okay if you want to,

But I didn’t know that my feelings, thoughts,

emotions, reservations, fears, wishes, hopes, desires,

Anything that goes on in my mind

Is okay

To go on in my mind

But no one told me that.

 

And no one told me that

A test score, a sheet of paper, a letter or a number

Can’t validate if I have a good mind.

Because how can any of those things

Know if I have a good mind

And how can any of those things tell you

All the things that go on in my mind.

But still at age 8,

I’ll spend weeks on end awake

Fearing failure,

Determined by how good my mind was.

But no one told me that

I am not validated by anything other than myself.

Or that

I am worthy

Of worth,

No has ever

Told me

That.

 

No one ever told me

That heartbreaks

Make for great fake love poems

Or that real love poems

Make for great heartbreaks

Because

No one told me love was hard

But no one one told me it was easy

 

No one ever told me

That when you bow down

In little white gloves

As a little girl in pigtails

God’s not going to give you a straight answer

And he never will.

No one told me that just because a man can’t say

I love you

Doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it

And no told me that when a man can’t say

I love you

It means he doesn’t feel it

And no one told me the difference.

And by the way,

No one told that little girl

That just because she is little,

Doesn’t mean she is

Little.

And no one told me that,

There are millions

Of not so little girls who

Will never

Hear that.