St Mary’s Secondary School, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

The “Teenage Dream”

 

“The teenage years are the best of your life,”

Ah yes, the years where problems are rife.

How do I look, how should I act, what do I say?

Are they my friends, the world is dying, am I gay?

 

We are told “The Youth are the ure,”

Of climate change, homelessness, wars and more.

The nights we spend crying, alone in the dark,

For the uncertain journey on which we must embark

 

Teenage Years

 

I’m now at that age

Where big certs and small sizes

Determine your worth,

The “the best years of your life” are

Full of cruel words and anxiety

But don’t have a face on.

Don’t be ungrateful,

It could be much worse.

 

I’m now at that age

Where boys expect you

To have a body like a Victoria’s Secret model

And a mind like a slave.

Where condescending teachers

Treat you like children

But expect you to act your age

And older.

 

I’m now at that age,

Where I’m supposed to find myself out.

To know who I am.

But how could I know who I am

When this world constantly tells me

“Be different” “be yourself”

“Be the yourself that the world wants”

 

I’m now at that age.

And I wish the world would

Just give me a break.

 

Dysphoria

 

I look in the mirror and I see a body

By now I thought I would recognize myself

But the image I see is broken

A puzzle missing a piece

A machine built with spare parts

The body shouts to someone who isn’t there

 

I distance myself from the mirror

Into a society saying my name

Using my pronouns as they speak

Changing to the image in my mind

And the person in the mirror changes

 

I look back at the image of a body

It’s standing differently now

Did I change

Or did the mould of the world adjust

To help me fit into my skin.

 

Being a Girl

 

Being a girl is tough

From catcalling to unwanted photos,

We’ve all just had enough

 

Walking around in constant fear

Wishing they would all just disappear

 

The pressure of having a perfect body

When really it’s all just a copy of a copy

 

From having spotless skin

When all that really matters is what comes from within

 

The Little Things

 

The little things that make us feel alive,

The things that put us into overdrive,

The times we don’t know we are making

Memories until they are over.

All these treasures that create out of life a

Massive hangover,

 

You feel so sad you cry to mam,

Laughing so hard with your friends till you shed a tear,

 

The things people do for you,

The things you already knew,

And things that makes us feel alive.

Dance

 

My thing is dance,

That’s me at a glance,

But what’s deeper inside,

Isn’t projected to the outside.

 

I’m more than what society shows me to be,

I’m too scared of judgement for everyone to see,

Society is cruel, hateful, full of unreal expectations,

Trying to keep up with it causes colossal frustration.

 

I want to be who u am without prejudice,

But today’s world is just too incredulous.

 

Let Me Go Home

 

Stuck in a building, everything is protected

Nurses checking up on you left and right

Medication every night and day, there’s no room for air.

I feel like I’m going crazy, I just want to go home.

 

Rules, don’t talk about your real life.

Never stay in your room, stay close to the nurses.

Smile, don’t cry.

I feel like I can’t breathe, let me go home.

 

“We want to help you”, shoving meditation down our throats.

“We want to help you”, you cannot call anyone today because I said so.

“We want to help you”, please just let me go home.

 

Standards

 

Standards are from head to toe

Expectations are to have the perfect body, the face

To impress all the people that feel the same way

It feels like a race with no end

To follow each trend

When it’s all just a game of pretend

 

Sometimes

 

Sometimes I feel like people don’t understand me I have thought about it a little

And I made up a simpler term which is “I’m an iPhone amongst androids”.

Sometimes I feel that I’m faking what I feel to make others feel better.

I hate the idea of people thinking of me less than what I am

But at the same time I actually don’t care.

Sometimes I feel lonely, I don’t have a best friend or close friend but I’m friends with everyone.

I don’t enjoy some of my friendships but I feel as if I can’t say anything

Because I don’t want to be the bad guy.

Sometimes I worried that I annoy people,

That I talk to much maybe that I do not listen good enough

And I’m afraid of bothering or annoying people

And being too loud or that I’m too full of myself.

Sometimes I get really anxious or worried.

I hate when something important to me is out of my control

And I hate disappointing people that are important to me.

Sometimes I wish people were more caring, understanding and kind.

Sometimes I wonder how the world has come to such disgusting and violent behaviour.

I hate when people treat you differently because of you gender or sexuality.

Sometimes I feel empty and that I’m lazy that I don’t feel motivated to do anything

Sometimes I feel lost!

 

Change

 

We grew up in a “normal world”

Now a days we are far from normal

Missing our families, our friends, normality

Wishing and praying that we could go back to how it used to be

 

Great Granny’s forgetting names because they haven’t seen us in so long

Neighbours never communicating anymore

New babies born not knowing anyone but their close family

 

Change is unusual

And no one likes change

But change is the new normal

 

Camogie

 

Camogie is something I spend my life playing

I spend my time training

As if I’m a professional

Some people will be sceptical

I am an amateur

But it is the atmosphere

The crowds cheering

After getting a clearing

 

The Other Day

 

I went for a walk the other day. A peaceful and quiet walk with my dog and my mom.

Maybe a bit too quiet.

 

My dog suddenly got startled and started barking.

His booming dog voice echoing through the trees and sending panic through me.

 

We were in a plain, lightly forested area

I couldn’t see anything that my dog was barking at. Not a fox or squirrel or hedgehog.

Maybe a bird?

I looked up. No. I looked down.

 

My mom had fallen into a hole in the ground. I helped her get out safely.

I felt intimidated by this hole in the forest.

As I looked into it I heard it breathing. I saw the dirt, no, the flesh, moving.

 

Why are there no animals here?

 

Lunchtime

 

Lunchtime is scary

Walking to Lidl to see fit lads

Sometimes you do

Or say

Something stupid

And think about it for days.

The three of us walk in

Masks on

To buy Lidl cookies

Sometimes doughnuts.

The fear of being seen

As a fattie

By a fittie

Can put you right off your lunch

We walk

Back to school

Full.

 

I Wish

 

I wish you cared about me like I did for you.

I miss you so much. You made me feel things I thought I could never feel.

But although I wish you were here with me you’re not right for me and it’s time to let you go.

But if I had one wish it could be to talk to you one more time just one more time and fix things.

I’m trying to let you go but I can’t. But I don’t want to let you go.

You were my sunshine in the world full of rain.

You made me feel as though I was enough.

 

My New Shoes

 

As I get out of the car and put my new brown decks on the cobble stone

My blistering heal squished into my shoe,

I think about my day ahead because I walk alone,

With every step I take I know that when I take off my shoes at the end of the day,

My white cotton socks will be drenched in blood

 

Simple Dimple

 

Simple dimple

Pop it squeeze

Is what I say when I

Maliciously poke

A round piece of colourful rubber

That in some way

Shape or form

Would dissolve into the void

Of eternal darkness

 

One may not pay much attention

To my current sophisticated hyper-fixation,

But simple dimple pop it squeeze

Flows through my mind

When I caress my rainbow pop it

 

Dreaming

 

As I walk down the street

I can see the plaza hotel

Holding my waffle with ice cream

Dripping down

You would think that I

Was reminiscing about how

It was the last day of my holidays

But really all I could think about

Was the biscoff biscuit Chris Evans

Was eating in knives out.

 

Animals

 

People see cute, loyal, fluffy creatures

I see a wild four legged animal with sharp teeth and piercing features

One that could hurt you with one bite

But I have to see aw cute

 

Max

 

Max is a dog

He is very big

He is kinda scary

 

He doesn’t like me

He wants to eat me