The Shadow

My good deeds go undiscovered, hidden beneath the darkness.

Living in the shadow of inaccuracies.

As though I am standing behind two large oak trees.

I am the youngest of three,

One sister, one brother.

They failed to amount to much, aside from bringing life to babies.

I have thoroughly pushed myself to betterment,

Yet, doing as everyone pleased.

Most people thought it would be a breeze,

Trying out Advanced Placement courses and even joining the varsity dance team.

Gunning for team captain, clinging to hopes of being better –

Better than the two that came before me.

Before all of this,

Before all the accolades and the congratulations,

I was constantly teased,

Bullied, beaten, harassed;

Not only by my peers, but by my siblings as well.

I wanted to tell,

Tell the world

This is who they are!

They are mean, nasty, and hurtful people.

The things they would say to me,

Being only eight, no one ever believed.

As time passed, they never seemed to ease.

I only progressed in life.

Sometimes I felt the jealousy,

I felt a knife in my back even.

The knife metaphorically being their eyes,

Jealousy ran through their lies.

They say they are proud, only to be heard out loud.

But inside their devilish minds – they plot, they plan

To take me down and bring me back so far underneath their shadows.

Brother constantly being greedy

Draining my parents' money,

Begging them to never give me any.

With his legion children

Unable to support them or himself.

Still underneath the roof of our loving parents,

Placing me on the back of the shelf.

Deciding to venture out into world of college,

Finally getting acknowledged.

Desiring money,

Forcing myself to work for scraps to eat,

Now, I greet guests walking into a door

Asking, “Hello, how many?”

Only to ask myself, “Why am I the one out here working?”

At the age of twenty-three, he does nothing for a living.

I am eighteen years old and a full time student.

Staying up late, only to finish homework one hour before class begins,

Never allowing myself to become truant.

My parents struggle for money.

Telling me, “We cannot give you too much, my darling honey.”

Leaving me no choice but to work.

All because of this jerk.

The jerk others call my brother,

Only because we have the same father and mother.

I feel that devilish smirk upon his face,

Thinking he has won.

The more I succeed, the closer I am to victory.

We rarely don’t speak of my sister Hilary,

She is out of the race.

The race towards success, the race to see who is better.

She has given up, and is now dating a scrub

Leaving me alone to face the incompetent jerk that refuses to work.

One day,

Within these next seven years I plan to prove to him,

I am the winner. I am better.

With my future law degree,

I will be the one on top.

And he will one day stop,

As he rots in jail all because of his failure to produce his child support.

And I will one day have to represent him in court.

Moving on to support my parents,

Showering them with gifts and jewels galore.

Bestowing upon them a brand new house with a maid that cleans their floor.

I will come out as the winner.

And why is that you ask?

Because I am the one with patience,

Knowing I will one day step out of his pathetic shadow.

I am victorious.