It's Been Years

I'm too young to say, "it's been years since blank,"

But I say it anyway.

I know the years that passed me by and I have been nothing but stagnant

Nothing but hopeless

Nothing but withered and dried up like corpses but that all stopped, so I sat down and wrote this.

It's been years since I wrote a poem.

Years since my ink hit paper, years since I thought I could make minds make sense and make up my own mind, make my own cents, my own pence

Who says I'm stuck in this ditch I've climbed out of over and over again

Who says I can't move on and my struggle's just too real?

That I joined a system I can't get out of?

It's been years since we started those fights.

Years since I learned to be silent on staircases and avoid creaky floorboards

Now they creak so much I can't hear it anymore

Drowning in the sounds of anger and passion in the wrong form and I can't seem to get my key in the lock on the door

It's been years since I put the blades down

Since I saw only my problems as my own because it's not my fault they don't know how to talk and if they don't want me involved I'll withdraw

It's been years since I got my license. 

Yeah, that's right.

Got a car and a card with a government hologram, oh man, am I ever out of this town

It's been years since I realized my issues are valid, my struggles are valid, my pain is valid, my decisions are valid, my opinions are valid, and you cannot crowd it or me or I with your lies, I am genuine and alive, I got caught, and I survived.

It's been years since I felt I was dropping like a stone.

And I've got years more to go.