Calm | Teen Ink

Calm MAG

August 17, 2019
By PoetFromAnotherPlanet GOLD, San Jose, California
PoetFromAnotherPlanet GOLD, San Jose, California
15 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." -T.S. Eliot


She tells me her nervous system is calm.

She is ready to work and asks if I would like some help calming mine.

I am conscious of the fluttering of my heart,

Hot flush in my cheeks.

My fingers twist and twist and twist the hairband,

Winding it ever tighter,

Toe tips flying across the floor in couplets,

Must never break rhythm of two or four.

Maybe it’s these things that tell her

Or simply her knowing that change in plans, interruption, traffic that has made me late

Was always bound to set my teeth on edge.

I remind myself that her nervous system is calm,

Not angry or anxious or any other form of tumultuous.

Here she has extended me her hand so-to-speak, help.

All I must do is take it.

I simply must say “yes.”

“She is not like the others,” I tell myself.

“No mask required. No danger lurking.”

I really do mean to say “yes.”

The word on the tip of my tongue,

But I open, and out tumbles “No, thank you. I’ll be fine in a minute.”


The author's comments:

I am autistic. I wrote this poem about how I was feeling after traffic made me late to therapy, a minor inconvenience to most. For me, it affected my whole day


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This article has 1 comment.


on Sep. 13 2019 at 9:37 pm
nate-is-the-name PLATINUM, Clarksburg, Maryland
22 articles 1 photo 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
We’re all nothing but walking paradoxes, and I love it!

I love your creativity! Amazingggg poem!!! And would you mind checking some of mine out?