Rhyme Schemes

I faced it, my biggest rejection.

How could they measure my affection with a grade point average?

Maybe they would change their minds if they knew that every line,

Every rhyme scheme saved me.

Poetry. You never judged.

You never questioned how a twelve-year-old could feel so in love.

You never stopped me from reciting lines from every love song I had memorized,

And dedicated, like some kind of ode, to the boys that had caught my eye, at the time.

Poetry. You helped me make sense of how my dad could leave,

And replace me with a woman more than four times my age,

And move away. I didn’t understand how easy it would be

For him to leave me behind. But with each rhyme, you helped me

Uncover the truth. You guided my hand to expose the words that my mouth

Wouldn’t speak. With you I didn’t have to lie and pretend that everything was fine.

You knew every truth of each dark thought residing in my mind.

Poetry. You were my best friend when nobody wanted to be.

When I moved to a new house but my heart was stuck somewhere else,

At home. In this new place I couldn’t help but feel so alone.

With you I let every empty minute pass and I reflected on the memories

That haunted me from my past, but you determined my future.

Poetry. You were my first true love, until I found another.

A downgrade who only knew how to betray and degrade

My whole being. Was this the meaning of love? Was this

What everyone was searching for, yearning for?

This whirlwind of emotions, an unsettling devotion

To a boy that contributed to my hearts decay,

I should’ve stuck with what I knew. But you helped me

Navigate through the heartbreak when I realized

How easy it was for this boy to fake love.

Poetry. You were there when I discovered something

Worse than abandonment; an alcoholic, pill-popping

Mother. And yes, she threw it in my face that my dad had left,

And she excused her addictions with the excuse that she

Had always been there. But I asked her, what do you think is worse?

A parent who physically leaves, or one that has “always been there”

But is so unaware of how her addictions have contributed to her mental

Abandonment, of me.

Poetry. When I faced my biggest rejection, you reminded me of my

True affection. You are my past, my future, my present. So I wonder,

Would they change their minds if they knew that every line,

Every rhyme scheme saves me.