Her Allegory

Gazing outside I see the moon that man somehow reached

And I remember that it’s man not woman

Pondering if anyone else’s moon gaze is interrupted by the same thought

Peering through the window across the street you can see a girl that sings through writing

Chattering to strangers who only asked for directions

Questioning why lawyers were paid to argue

And in arguments

She could cry an ocean and hold back a tear

In both she learned that one does not take more than the other

Patience to hold back an ocean

And courage to swim in it

Just as her mother said

She declared she wanted to carry the weight of the world, like Atlas

Maybe if she did then everyone would look at the sky for once

And gaze at her the way they gaze at the moon except

This time they would call it the weight of the world on her shoulders

Her shoulders

Are great for leaning on and crying on 

That doesn’t mean she likes physical touch

She wanted love without saying she wanted love

This will never work because people are busy people

There is no forever for the patient ones that are running thin

She remembered when she once ran to be thin

Friend,

One day they stopped asking for my favorite color

And asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up

Alive, happy, and loved, I wanted to say

But since when did words betray

Friend,

They buried someone on my birthday

We celebrated my entrance to a new maturity

But what they said in my right ear doesn’t leave my left

I wasn’t supposed to recognize the past I knew best

Friend,

They just killed a man

Claiming they were conversing but

Opened their mouths, their words close to his head

The expression on his face was no more than dead

Friend.

I’m scared of dying and you’re really the only one I can tell 

Because I’m afraid of their judgement and their eyes reading my face that I try to pile

With a mask that can easily 

disintegrate…. Into the face you were born with

Until the day they forget what you were born with

But that can’t happen

That can’t happen,

They told women who wanted to go to the moon

Friend! 

When I look out that window I don’t see a haven I see

A swarm of bees over plastic flowers I see

Everyone else pointing at them and talking about how the flowers are pretty 

and pretty 

and pretty dead to me

When I say goodbye to our world 

I won’t wave because my shoulder hurts from carrying the weight of the world that was heavier 

than I expected 

Atlas’ performance couldn’t be perfected

I think it’s time for me to go 

Make sure to tell them nothing really mattered to me

And that I was actually poor but the people around me had much to give

And make sure to tell them to look up at the sky and see the man on the moon

(and ask them what they see

It might be the last time they say the truth)

Would they try carrying the world on their shoulders for fun 

Tell them it’s for fun

They’ll think life had just begun

And lastly

I’ll be turning my back on the man on the moon

They’re telling me to open my eyes now

Thank you heaven for all the dreams you sent the child

 that dreamt more than they allow

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