small town
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My momma always did say those bradford pears,
Smelled like the dead,
Somethin’ ‘bout a southern curse.
Ain’t nothin’ lonelier bein’ inside these pine walls,
The gate creaks in the early morning and the late evening, though I’ve never seen it
close
My town's biggest cemetery is home to the remembered, the forgotten, and the lost
The flags ripple in the wind
My life finally at full-volume
The city echoing back
the bright flicker beats of
a genuine smile
I shed excess layers like
a spring sweater
Oh how I love this small town of ours
I learn another chapter of someone’s story whenever I stop to say hello
This is where I first paused to smell the flowers
I walk by the widower’s house and wave through the window
She was 30
and wore her hair in a plain ponytail
and she taught science
at the only high school in this tiny town.
She didn't even live here;
rather, she lived in a tinier,
I was raised in a town where everyone was the same shade of unaccepting and indifferent.
Every person was the same wash of “keep quiet”, “don’t talk back”, and “you’ll never make it”.
You will never know the feeling of freedom that surges down my spine,
The shiver that cascades through my veins,
As we race against time to make memories.
P-O-U-...
I spell out my town's name, so familiar on my lips.
The rose hips I keep forgetting to make tea with,
the pitch of pines and gossipping voices.
Wind behind your back, whispering when your head's turned.
the girls are going missing.
i hear voices in convenience store buzz
and see a crime scene in
the cherry pie on an empty shelf.
eastern hum; the sound of
I grew up thinking
this is how I have to be
look like everyone else
act the same way
we're in the middle of nowhere
I could never understand
how someone could settle here
people with depression aren't lazy
people with anxiety aren't rude
people with mental illness aren't crazy
people with suicidal thoughts are boo'd
it's like i can't get through
with a fucker like you!
They whistled from the backyard until us little ones
Came trouncing through the woods
Covered in sap and ticks, scrapes and red cheeks.
We rolled down the big hill at top speeds
Just to feel our ears pop,
I am from sweat and hard work,
from the searing heat of summer
and the freezing chill of winter.
I am from the horse kicked dirt,
and the cattle-branded smoke blowing in the wind.
In this little town it's not celebrated
but being different is the best thing you can be.
If you'd go to this school you'd see a bunch of the same.
Who wants to be a clone?
I was bullied for being different here
How many can actually commit their lives to small town kids?
Give us time to forget our,
Differences!
No time for prejudices when we,
Fly!
Throw your hands up,
Rock on!
To get far away
Till I can't even see home
Alone on my own
This place is to small
Suffocating me slowly
My dreams are bigger
Something is out there
Endless opportunities
Why can't I just go
Bubbles flutter to surface searching free
Attempting to find their home above tide
But try not to leave comrades back at sea
This is my town.
Our town where she ran me ragged.
She was always running.
Running around in circles in two bit town.
Never getting anywhere.
Because the end felt a lot like the beginning.
