What you have for lunch is everything.

always carry your keys between your middle and ring finger

never have your wallet visible

don't listen to music in public

everyone's a stranger

you're our child; don't scare us.

The rain fell in steady sheets onto the sidewalk, and I shivered. Next to me, my friend Chloe glanced at her watch.

“Four minutes until they let us in.” she rubbed her arms. “It's really cold.”

I look at my teenage years

I see the pain, I see my fears

I’m still young but I desire that faith

I believe and know I’ll be ok

I fell in a pit

A hole so deep

I couldn’t save me using my wit

Catching fireflies

In my palms

Catching snowflakes

On my tongue

Throwing wishes

To the sky

On the wings

Of dandelions

Dreaming

With my head

In the clouds

Begging to stay

They're obsessed with social media and two-second dating

we talk about climate change and ski racing

they'll talk about what they're supposed to

we'll talk about the world's problems and what to do

I promise you I care

This I know for sure.

I promise you I’m here

Just maybe not to stay.

I promise you I’m fine

Just in my own way.

I promise you I’m trying

I swear I always have been.

I am a teenager

My life is not simple

I am traumatized and scarred

And doing my best

But it seems like adults can’t see this

All they see is an anxious little girl

Who doesn’t seem to care

To be chosen. 
 

That's all I wish for—to be someone's first choice. 

I watch from afar, lost in a sea of the bittersweet feeling 

As others are always chosen first, but never me, 

i roll off from the table

landing in a box filled with hay

finally, i think

i’ve found my rightful place

then i look around

the strings of hay

entangling themselves 

i bend myself to fit them

a dream, swirling in my tired mind, a sequence of letters makes a word.

my brain aches, an onslaught of countless words and numbers.

Get up, grasp the dream, make it out.

Get up, identify it!

Get up!

Get up!

There should be a word

For ages thirteen through seventeen.

There should be a word

Like childhood or adulthood

That describes

Being a teenager.

Adolescence is one, yes

But it doesn't fit.