It's amazing how little attention people pay to you when you're the quiet kid. How deeply you melt into the background, how quickly they forget your presence. Particularly when you're both the quiet and good kid. The kid who never screams for attention, lashes out, or sneaks around. Especially when you're the quiet, good kid in a large family of not-so-quiet, not-so-good kids, who all scream, lash...

*Quotes and song lyrics in this poem. Anything in quotation marks is not mine!*

“I was quiet, but I was not blind.”

I kept convincing myself you were kind,

but you “got me feeling like it hurts to think.”

Why did I never connect the link?

“I’m terrified to be alone”

and “you pretend you don’t know me

like we never met.”

I’m just accident-prone,

making friendships you can bet

will fail harder than...

Hour Before The Photo Shoot:

 (The following vignette is a fun writing exercise, written without the letter ‘A’…)

When Lily entered the studio, John coolly growled, without bothering to look up, from his work desk, “Just follow the corridor, first door on your right. Deb’s there biding time; I hired her to help configure minor, yet needful, cosmetic improvements you might need.”

Dismissive...

The sound of the keys clacking beneath my dancing fingers soothes my soul. Usually. It’s hard to hear the sound of typing over the shouts coming from a few feet ahead. I fidget with one of my many braids as my fellow council members argue before me.

“Maybe if you weren’t a prick, Sam, we’d actually get something done in here!” The president, Alyssa, hisses towards our veep.

“Well, _you’re_ the o...

I use words

But I don’t say them outloud

It really is hard

To hear someone in a crowd

You might not hear more than a peep

Unless I am forced to speak

It doesn’t make sense

Unless you live it

Why give up your voice

When you can express it

You try to push above

When you are ignored

But I curl up and go down

Where the area is warm

Harsh cold territory

Pricks my skin

I don’t have the defence

That y...

“I was quiet but was not blind, just to clarify what you think. You think Im small like a mouse, but deep inside I’ll never stop. I’ll never stop the analyzing you thought I couldn’t manage. The message of being only a rat who knew too much. The rat who will speak up. Does that answer your question Mr. Sims?”

She put her cup down and scanned his face. He couldn’t fathom why she was so perpl...

Sitting in a room all too my self enjoying the scenery

Letting the world travel by mind in my own thoughts as the wired passes by.

I could hear the shouts and the voices around me

The subtle office politics and jibes.

The knife’s in the stomach

The love lust flirtous gaze

The vouyerism the narcissistic gaze

I was quiet but not blind...

I was quiet, but I was not blind.

could hear you and Dad argue every night. See the way you both tensed when you had to talk about something. I never said anything, in fear of my suspicions coming true. But now…now I can’t keep quite anymore.

“Quiet mouths don’t get fed.” Isn’t that what you’ve always told me?

That when something is on my mind, I should express myself. You’ve always been such ...

Blind

Define

Rewind

Kind

Quiet

Riot

Try it

Why not

No where

Do dare

Some care

Over there...

I was quiet, but I was not blind.

I saw your dirty looks, but I was too kind to say anything.

I heard your giggles but brushed the fear off.

I saw you whispering ear to ear.

I was quiet, but not blind.

I witnessed my family fight, yet I never stood up for my mom.

I heard them whisper about how ungrateful they think I am.

I saw their flaws, their strengths, every piece that came with...