I was a silly middle school girl. (Rough draft)
I was a silly middle school girl.
I wondered at my peer’s ability to swear (but didn’t join them)
I heard the other girls lament the pains of straightened hair (and didn’t want to)
I saw the awkward hugs they gave out in the hallways (PDA! PDA!)
I wanted so very much to get straight ‘A’s (You’d kill for my grades – but would you give up your social life?)
I was a silly middle school girl.
I pretended to ignore the real world while I read (until I forgot it existed)
I felt damp pages on my head (I ought to not read so late…)
I touched the tie of my organization’s uniform – snappy! (Official attire)
I worried, when people thought me sad when I was happy (am I that bad at communication?)
I cried, whenever my ideas were denied (too complicated)
I was a silly middle school girl
I understood math more than my peers, as a nerd. (… You’re telling me that 4 boyfriends a week is the mode*?)
I said quite a lot in those years, but much went unheard. (“Can you hear me?”)
I dreamt of writing novels, with nymphs in every creek bed (You know – nymphs? Greek Mythology? The Fae?)
I tried to kind-of, sort-of raise my head… (…and failed. Epically.)
I was a silly middle school girl. But now I’m not.
‘Cuz I’m a silly high school girl. (Nifty)
*Mode; the number which appears most frequently in a given data set.
Comments
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samueltfranklin
An interesting take on call and response--I read the parentheticals as an internal afterthought, as though these are what the narrator truly thinks after she speaks the preceding lines. There is real wit here, with a bit of loneliness and nostalgia. The clincher, though, is the last parenthetical..."nifty". I can almost hear it as a sarcastic/unenthusiastic utterance. Truly, though, there is an overall sense of a self-deprecating humor which, I'm sure, many people can identify with, and which will bring a smile to the face of anyone who's been in the same boat.