When I Was a Young Girl

When I was a young girl

 Is when I first noticed

My bashfulness got in the way

I had so many thoughts that swirled in kalediscopes and

So many dreams that were swinging high above the trees

I had so many wishes about being seen like my Big brother.

I had so many fantasies about being confident, like he was.  

He always knew the right things to say

But no, not me.

My shyness always got in the way.

I wanted to be seen so badly,

but I was too scared to show my face

That was when I began to write.

Short little blurbs about me sticking my tongue out

To teachers who had ridiculed my doodles, my choice in books,

my purple hair, 

When in real life, I did not even have the courage to 

stand up straight.

I wrote, I wrote, and I wrote

Poetry became a home for the part of me 

that was Sassy and Cunning and quick. 

Poetry became a place where I could stand up straight. 

It was something that I was better at than my Big brother.

It was a home that made me have pride

and realize who I really was,

even if that did not fit the popular mold. 

I would never give writing up, not for any other talent in the world. 

for this gift allowed that shy girl a chance at another life,

one where she could speak her mind.