Walking Ravines (9/30/21) Who cares where I’m from ‘Who cares where I've been Who cares where I am Twas born in Florida ‘And 1am still in Florida Nothing exciting Idon't have Any words to flow off my tongue in some extravagant fountain That makes everyone stop to listen Not about where I’m from Not about where Tam don’t have a home My parents live five minutes apart Separating the two of them They push and pull me Ina game of tug-a-war 1 will never win Tam from nowhere And you won't find me anywhere Does a girl 14Who lives nowhere Live at all? Tam waiting for something To pull me out of this nothing And in the meantime, I write I write words too large to fit between my lips But I still move my pencil to form their shapes I write metaphors between the syllables of facts So no one ever knows what I truly think Writing is my escape Tlose myself in the words so that the world can’t lose me My ears ring with the scratch of the pencil ‘And while there are times it soothes me There are times it swallows me ‘Lam pushed and pulled over a ravine Of other people’s opinions While they eagerly await my own But they won’t get my own No one listens to the words I speak ‘No one reads the words I write And maybe prompts are just guides But | feel chained by someone else’s words Lam losing hold on my own voice 15When someone asks how my day was I say it was fine Even though T know it was not fine Those words still leave my lips This fountain you are waiting to read is dry My words are deserted My feelings aren't supported And my efforts will never be rewarded My efforts are pointless ‘When I am insulted and torn apart Tam not the one who is saved Someone else is saved because they crumbled at the contact of my pain Tam ignored Lam silenced by the screams of people Who may be hurt But they are always hurt There is never a moment when their screams are silenced So my screams are in tum silenced When do my words matter When does my cracked and bloody throat Get the chance to speak words in an elegant fountain ‘My feelings are insignificant 16They are small compared to the impact of others When you are surrounded by people Everything you feel is seen When you are dangled over a ravine Everything you feel is forgotten 1 am trapped in expectations and accusations Tam forced to live for other people If someone finally wins this game of tu I will not be brought to flat land I will be dropped into the oblivion No one will be there to save me The people who dropped me will be saved by the people that surround them Because you are not saved until you are something But the world treats me as nothing So I will never be saved I will never be pulled out of this ravine The game of tug-a-war will never end ‘My fountain will remain dry Unless someone finally takes a second To listen to the way my pipes whine Because I have words Thave more words than I know what to do with But someone needs to let them flow off my tongue 17Because I gave my power to do so To somebody else 18