When there was a little girl

She was brash and bold

Unafraid of her emotions

Happily decreeing the things that made her sing

 

But that little girl became littler

When she was told

To hold her tongue and let a conversation follow its course

A course that deemed her words unnecessary

 

So she swallowed her voice

First around the family that had scolded her

Then around her friends

So as not to offend

 

As she grew bigger

Her soul grew smaller

For in order to be what she had been taught as polite

She started to forget herself

 

Upon reaching middle school

She found herself with one friend who she clung onto for dear life

Successfully traversing her three years there

As merely a shadow passing through

 

Now she was a teen

A static being inhabiting the supposed emotional years of her life

Everyone around her was feeling who they were

And she realized she couldn’t

 

But how could she start to feel

When she didn’t know where to look

For emotions she had thrown away

In exchange for acceptance