Art By Pat Byrne: https://jamartprints.com/artist/pat-byrne/
Ode to T-Swizzle
Your long blonde hair, and your piercing blue eyes evoke a sense of peace within my being
Your voice is like a songbird, calming and loving even when your singing about ex’s
You have songs for every emotion ranging from rage to love
When you sing to me it is like a dove
Your lyrics poetic, sympathetic and definitely not pathetic
With every song you release, i get peace
Even though Mr. perfectly fine broke your heart
I was wondering if you would be Mrs. perfectly mine
Your devoted lover
Uncomfortable Feeling
I walk down the road.
My skirt swishing in the wind and my jacket tightly wrapped around my shoulders
People pass me by
Women, men and others.
I make eye contact with one of the men
His gaze travels down from my eyes, to my chest
To my bare legs that have goose bumps from the wind.
I frown as he walks by
He wont remember me but I will remember the uncomfortable feeling
Settling in my stomach as his eyes raked down my body
Making me want to cover my body and feel safe again.
The Aftermath
As I walked down the street it was busy again
So many emotions came into my head
Some wearing masks and some wearing gloves.
So many things that I saw but I didn’t want to touch.
Reading expressions from just peoples eyes.
Some excited, some about to cry
I thought to myself what has the world become.
All I can do is protect myself and fear for what is going to come
21st Century
Express yourself, it’s the 21st century
Yet we can’t dye our hair whacky colours in school without internal worry.
Express yourself, the media says
Yet judging comments and videos are spread across my phone
Express yourself, the teenagers say
Yet you get dirty glares from girls and snickers from boys
If you wear that outfit you wanted to wear
Express yourself… do it… don’t care about what others think
But those looks and comments are what make it hard to sleep a wink.
Society
We live in a society where men have ownership over women’s bodies
They have the power to make decisions about experiences they’ve never felt
We live in a society where women can not walk outside without feeling unsafe.
They fear the ones in charge
We live in a society where women have to choose families over their career.
Men enjoy both but struggle with none
We live in society where women are hired to please men
They are shamed by the same people who use them
Through all of this
We are strong
We are powerful
We are fierce
And we will fight back to change the society we live in
Immaturity
Clueless, rude and disrespectful they’re all the same
You can never be right
Too small, too tall, big forehead, small face, there’s no winning.
They don’t get it. they never will
Getting called on the street like your a piece of rubbish thrown out of a car
They think that’s ok, that its normal
Its just a game to them, but not the fun type for us
They don’t get it, they never will
Will they ever change
Or are we trapped in this level of immaturity forever
It makes me angry, sad
They don’t get it, they never will
Steps
Why are there so many steps
It’s a Monday, my head pounds.
Walking down these steps with my hair down
It’s as if there is no ground
Each concrete step is like the last ,camouflaged
Every step morphs with the last
But there is a person behind me I’d better walk fast.
What school needs five flights
The teachers take the elevator
No need for them to experience such a delight.
I get to the bottom eventually, only to have to return to those damned steps.
Our City:
Walking through our city alone at night as I seek every possible street light.
The feeling of being watched consumes me as strangers stare at me
Like a piece of meat in a zoo full of hungry lions.
Those hungry lions pass by me and my body tenses as
They shout their crude comments at me. Who will i encounter next
A drunken fool, a cocky teenage boy trying to impress his friends.
The list goes on ,as do my fears .
I continue to walk through the dark
Lonely streets of our city
Mornings
I wake up to that painful sound disturbing me from my peaceful dreams,
I reluctantly crawl from the warm space where my body lay to put on that ugly ass uniform
Green , who chose that colour
I eat the same boring food, ‘for energy’ dad says
I get into the car and turn on the seat warmer to remind me of that warm space this morning
Winter
Silver bells ringing,
Christmas lights blinking
Christmas is near
Lets all cheer
Reindeers hooves are imprinted in the snow,
Carrol singers are singing ‘Ho, ho!’
Children playing in the car,
Parents drinking in the bar.
Grandads are praying cause they’re Christians,
Grandma’s making cookies in the kitchen.
The Christmas tree is hopping,
While Auntie is shopping.
I can’t wait for Christmas!
Mondays
Another week has gone by,
Its Monday again and again
I can’t remember what I ate or what I wore
Or remember things I should remember
I close my eyes for a moment and
It’s Monday again
And again
I hate Mondays
The start of a new week
Double Irish
Another week I won’t remember
Test
Tests upon tests,
Pressure piles up like a boulder on my chest,
Expectations on me that I can’t keep up with,
Creativity crushed by essays and chapters I have to learn off by heart,
Just for one percentage at the end of the year.
About What
Seconds counting down,
Pressure building up,
Write a poem, write a poem, write a poem,
About what?