Coco

I’ve kept every card I’ve ever received 

For as long as I can remember

People fade in and out of your life

Eventually lost in the past, forgotten

I read their letters after sunset

I am 13

I am in 7th grade.

I like school. Most of the time.

I am quite good at school.

I'm in all the advanced classes offered. 3 years ahead in Math, 3 years ahead in my English vocab, and on the hardest History track.

“Why didn’t you ask for help?”

When I didn’t write for weeks

I was asking for help

When I stopped smiling

When I stopped laughing

When happiness became fake

An emerald sweep

of thin spears stretches

through the garden,

past the rough concrete

platform decorated with chairs

of red banded with white,

along the little reservoir

of spitting water,

They wonder why I'm quiet...

They wonder why I don't show my feelings...

They wonder why I listen to everyone's problems...

They don't see the scars that I hide and hurt that I have felt...