Who I Am

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 09:53 -- ekb1998

My English teacher once asked,

For me to write a poem

About who I truly was

Yet I hadn’t had a clue

 

I went home that day 

And looked in the mirror

I saw myself staring back, wondering

Is this all there is to me?

Am I my bright red hair,

that makes me different from the rest

Or am I my teeth, overly straightened by metal contraptions

to please a society based on being the best

 

I realized I was only looking skin deep -

That I am not an image produced by a shiny surface

Nor am I a number, or weight, or gender

And certainly not what society wants me to be

 

I am the doodles on the top of my math homework 

I am the bowl of oatmeal I eat every Sunday morning

with a dash of cinnamon and blueberries

I am the pieces of songs that play endlessly in my head

I am the thoughts that drown my soul at two in the morning

when I think that no one is awake

 

I am the girl who cried at SeaWorld when she was six,

because seeing animals in cages made her sad

I am the girl who has watched every episode of Gossip Girl - twice,

just so she can pretend she knows what it is like to live in New York City

I am the girl who needs to make daily lists of every little thought and thing,

yet can never keep her room straight for longer than a day

I am the girl who climbed the Great Wall of China,

who snorkeled with sharks,

who survived honors biology,

but is still scared to tell people how she truly feels

 

These thousand little things are the bindings of my being

The food of my soul 

And the meaning of me

 

Without them I am just a name,

Like a being without a voice,

And a girl without a face

 

Without them, I become like everyone else

A fragment of wasted youth and dreams

Confined to a reality of being

A mirage of myself

Lost in society

 

 

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