Who Am I?: Poem Composition

By: Sabrina Smith

“Who are you? Or rather, who aren’t you?”

I am not the pressure that engulfs me

nor the peers that breath down my neck,

demanding I fit in,

just not in a too much.

 

I am not the expectations of society

that force many a teenager

to snap under the pressure

 

No

I don’t aspire to conform to them

But rather show them me

and take it all head on.

 

I am just a girl,

hardly able to handle

my own pressures

wishes

expectations

who still molds and conforms

so as not to cause trouble

because having another opinion

is wrong.

 

Decisions rush through my head,

and I make them monotonously,

robotic,

the human calculator

of everything

as if they are nothing,

a mark on me

from society’s whip of conformity.

 

Juggling commitments like a clown,

I struggle to bear the weight,

my arms weary,

breaks remaining nonexistent,

 

No one is there

when I forget to catch

or move too slow,

and I stumble,

before I

fall.

 

When angered,

frustrated,

losing control,

imagine me as a bull,

charging with sharp-tipped horns,

hurting anything that gets in the way.

 

But no matter what,

no matter how battered,

I look to my days with optimism,

hoping that

there will be a reason to smile

knowing that

Love will help me grow.