Enough

you're too young,
they all say.
their voices echo through hallways,
creep into the tiniest
crevices 
of my brain.
you're too young,
you can't be anything,
do anything.
you're so young,
it's so cute that you're trying to 
be anything,
do anything.

their words make me
look back 
and think,
maybe i can't
do this.
make me
scribble over
my work
because it doesn't
feel like enough.
nothing is enough
when people know
how young you are
and think that is
a fault
instead of a virtue.

sometimes i wonder,
if people could hear the words
in my heart,
would they still think i was
too young?
or would they
finally
take me seriously
as a person,
a human,
a writer,
an artist.
or do i just have to wait
until i am a true adult
for people to believe
i can do things?
that i can be
everything they can be?

will anything
ever be
enough?

star

NH

14 years old

More by star

  • Song lyrics & you

    You're laying siege on me

    with your dimples and your crooked teeth

    with your hair, wet from the shower

    with the way your voice sounds when you're speaking Italian

    with the way you make me feel, both like crushed gravel

  • Good news

    I don't want the cold hallways,

    their chill seeping underneath 

    my thin regulation gown and settling in my bones.

    I don't want the nurses,

    with their tight, sympathetic smiles

  • Us

    I cling to the rollicking waves of our tumultuous friendship before they slip from my grasp, white-knuckled fingers and tangled legs praying not to be tossed astray by the unforgiving current.