Rest Assured

“Learn Between the Lines Scholarship Slam” Entry

Rest Assured

Through letters and words strung carefully together, I can express the train wreck pounding in my head

Both positive and negative, escaping with each shaky breath

As my pen runs freely across the page, without the same limitations burning in my chest

A temporary escape to a growing jumbled mess, through a constant test in search of the source of my stress

Poetry is often taken for granted, by those who don’t understand

The same ones who bury their aching hearts in the depths of sand

“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou has pulled me through

My desperate times of sorrow, as salty tears streamed down my cheeks

The throbbing of financial debt weighing heavy on my feet

Like a blooming rose in a dying meadow, I lifted up my head

No matter how low it hung, I was able to move ahead

Through the translation of my emotions, scripted on an empty page

I took out all my frustration in a much more effective way

Rather than turning to relationships, drugs, or alcohol hoping it will fade

You may not be aware of the cracks in my smile

The suffocating darkness and laughs that come out choked

Activities I used to enjoy all feeling like a joke

But despite all of it I leave my heart on this creamy white slate

The cracks in my smile become fuller each passing day

The claws on my heart unclasping with the chains

A brighter morning on the horizon, the chance to be okay

So thank you poetry again for returning my strength

For being there when the mistakes that I made, wrapped their bony fingers around my ankles

And close family and friends refused to stay

With your warm arm around me and my head buried in the crook of your neck

I survived another night and remembered what it is to rest   

Selena Soto