I’m sick.
Sick and tired
Of being cast off,
Blown off,
Snubbed.
I’m just as smart as he,
Just as pretty as she,
So can I take the lead?
Please.
I’m surprised
I have friends at all:
I see these plastic bottles
No more than 25 hours a week
And still got some votes…
I think
I tried my best
To beat the rest,
And I must confess
I did not act like a mess:
Preparing endlessly
For my speech,
Putting up posters
To throw off the posers,
And still I lost.
Such idiotic students
I have at my school!
They clique together
Like birds of a feather
Because they think it makes them cool.
And here I am,
The stand-alone
The outsider,
A solo artist
Not trying to fit in.
Am I the only one who realizes
That none of this matters?
All these friendships
Are as effervescent as rainbows
And merely serve to
Stagnate our growth
Into grown-ups,
For how can we show
We are ready to go
Off to college if
We are mentally stuck
In this freak show?
Five selfies later and
No one has said “yep, I’d date her”?
Ooh, so many haters!
Go on, call them traitors
They never were your true friends
From the start.
Is this the world we live in,
One where the popular few
Are followed by the most?
The cool kids
Get the prizes?
Well what of me?
I’m neither cool nor hot
Not dumb but smart
And still I don’t get what I
Deserve…
Oh you’ve got nerve
To ignore me,
For one day I’ll be
The boss of you all.
I’ll run your world
And be that girl
Who makes real change
While you sit around
Like ants on a mound
Wishing you had what it takes
To be really, truly great.
June 2015: A few months ago I read this poem at a poetry slam and was struck by the shocked response of many of my current friends. "How could people be so mean to you?" they asked. But the quieter question was in fact: how could I stand for such disrespect? Confidently I say: I have learned from the past.