So a year ago I had to write this free verse poem as an assignment for English class, and I decided to share how terrible it is with you. I'm just going to copy and paste the exact poem here.

Happiness

Falling down a black hole,

neverending darkness.

They’re whispering behind my back,

saying words no elementary schooler should ever utter.

But here they are,

announcing their disobedience to the world.

TEASING,

b

u

l

l

y

i

n

g,

belittling,

bErAtInG,

c r i t i c i z i n g,

and squishing me under their mysteriously spotless shoes.

I never guessed my clothes,

hair,

ears,

indistinguishable ethnicity,

and the fact that I’m not comfortable talking to strangers was a problem before,

but according to them,

it is.

Yet when I try to defend myself,

they only make me feel guilty.

“We’re your friends!” they chide.

“It’s just a joke!”

Am I a joke? 

I must be.

But they’re charming,

persuading me that they can do no wrong.

“We would never hurt you!”

But for some reason it’s like I’ve been punched in the heart,

and even their convincing argument leaves me questioning my reality.

I must be so horrible that I don’t even know how horrible I am,

because otherwise why would my heart be torn apart?

I attempt to hide the “horrible” parts of myself,

but the teasing doesn’t subside.

In fact,

it grows.

Gone is the easily ignored sapling,

and in its place is a massive tree looming over me.

I know trees are supposed to be good,

but this one leaves me wary for some reason.

And just when I start to think that all light has drained from my life,

that I’ll be mysteriously unhappy forever,

one rebellious thought flits into my head.

What if I’m not the problem?

Aah there it is I'm sorry. So there was some stuff that didn't copy over like different fonts for different parts, but whatever, it's still horrible. And of course my teacher had to pull me aside and ask if I was okay. Idk why I thought this would be a good idea. We had to write a free verse poem about some memorable event from our lives, and I chose to write about being bullied in elementary school, yay. And I ended up getting 5 points taken off because apparently I should've used the enter key more. Also, I just realized I made a pun saying that the tree leaves me wary. And no, I actually didn't have some rebellious thought when I was a kid, I just wanted to make it more satisfying and slightly less depressing. I still really struggle with all of those things and more. Also I guess now you know I'm not white. And no, my profile picture is not actually a picture of me, it's just a random stock photo I found that I thought was funny. It's really late. Past 2:00 in the morning. I should probably sleep I guess. Bye.