Ode to My Old Friend | Teen Ink

Ode to My Old Friend

December 13, 2017
By malloreyrayne GOLD, Nashotah, Wisconsin
malloreyrayne GOLD, Nashotah, Wisconsin
14 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.


My dearest friend,
I have much to say
with my voice so broken
and my heart feeling grey.

 

Because the words in my mouth
aren’t good enough for your ears,
so instead I use stolen verse
from past philosophers.

 

They were flesh and bone
like you and like I--
full of regret and mistake,
with oceans in their eyes.

 

Ink blotted paper,
deadlines and bullsh**.
I can’t write the same novels
but I feel the same anguish.

 

Summers shrink to winters
and young writers turn old poets,
with words wiser than mine,
and with tone heroic.

 

I will be lesser than my heroes.
Try as I may, I know I will fall
to be headstone and dirt beside
those who seemed so strong and tall.

 

And though I am dying,
it is not in vain:
down with the sorrow
and down with the chains!

 

Now in my hot summer
I sit and I write,
striving to be the ones
who fought good fights.

 

I am striving to be good again,
though I know I am a burden.
I’ll be quiet, I promise
though my plan is uncertain. 

 

Please read my poetry
and hold it within.
Don’t strive to be anything
other than child with pen.

 

I know I have hurt you
and made myself a fool
and this poem will never assuage
the pain I have caused you.

 

I love you my dear
though I do not deserve to feel it,
and I want to be better for you
though I cannot redeem it.

 

Be kind to yourself
and sleep when you can.
Remember to eat
and write when you’re sad.

 

Though I am washed up
and shallow at best,
I refuse to forget the winter
I spent in your chest.

 

I am selfish and ill-cared for
but please don’t leave me.
Stay around and
remind me how not to be.


The author's comments:

This piece is a reflection of the winter of 2016, and the events that followed a lost love. 


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