PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Saturday night

Daughter sits at the wooden desk in her living room frantically studying for her AP Physics exam she has on Monday

The phone abruptly rings

And snaps her back to reality

Mother answers

Tells the voice on the other line that her daughter cannot hang out with her tonight

7 PM is too late to go out

Daughter needs to stay home

And study…study…STUDY!!!

For if she wants to make something of her existence

To be someone in this world

She needs to earn perfect grades

And kiss perfect asses

To live the perfect life

Ergo

She can never hang out with her friends

She can never go to the movies or mall with them

She can never see her favorite band in concert

She can never play on a sport’s team

She can never go on a date with a boy

She can never have fun

She can never…live



Sunday afternoon

Daughter lies on the wooden bed in her bedroom dreaming of a dove being liberated from a cage

The door abruptly opens

And snaps her back to reality

Mother screams

Tells daughter to wake up because she is wasting valuable time in which she could and should be studying

Or applying to colleges

Or planning her future

Mother forgot daughter’s sweet sixteen last week

For the only numbers that matter to her are 4.0

And she’s only be truly happy when she sees the first letter of the alphabet with an addition sign after it

Mother hands a piece of white lined paper to daughter  

With the “Ancient Eight” colleges listed on it

And closes the door

Daughter looks at the paper as a tear splashes on “Harvard and Yale”

And black mascara bleeds and stains “Brown”

And “Colombia” and “Cornell” spontaneously combust

And “Pennsylvania” and “Princeton” perpetually pollutes her lungs

And “Dartmouth” depressingly dampers her departed dreams

And she tosses the poisoned paper into her waste basket

She’s heard of these places before

She’s spent her entire life as a slave only for the chance to attend one of these pseudo Heavens

She’s heard stories of how they got their name

Something about ivy plants growing on the walls of many of the buildings

No one ever told her how poisonous those plants really were

Now she’s on the verge of tasting and touching the toxin

And there’s no remedy for the disease

And she will soon be lost in a world of masterminds and mannequins

Of collegians and clones

And she will never have her own personality or identity

She will never be able to go out and have fun on a Saturday night

She will never be able to be herself

She will never be able to find herself

She will merely be eternally locked in her dorm using a textbook as a pillow

Dreaming of that dove freely flying away



Monday morning

Daughter walks on the wooden plank to her classroom about to take the test that’ll allow her to achieve Mother’s goal

The wind ferociously blows

And snaps her back to reality

Mother’s voice is vividly heard in the back of her head

“Make me proud...make me proud…make me proud”

But for once, daughter thinks for herself

Thinks about the movie she didn’t get to see with her friends

Thinks about the birthday party she didn’t get to have

Thinks about the concert she couldn’t attend

Thinks about the softball team she couldn’t join

Thinks about her prom she couldn’t buy a dress for

Thinks about the life she couldn’t live

Thinks about the future she won’t have

So she closes her eyes

And jumps off of the wooden plank

And starts to flap her wings as she’s released from her cage

And when she receives her exam back she smiles like humans do

Because she knows that the F on the top of her paper does not stand for “failure”

It does not stand for “no future”

…But instead it stands for “free”