Youth Voices Rising Writing Contest 2023 — Second Place, Poetry
Heading with hopes to celebrate
being freshly adult
Trash bags of clothes initiate
a pain like an assault
Youthful and vain atrociousness
mask tears with mascara
Laying naked and motionless;
fake names like Amara
No family to satisfy,
no family to aid
What family could justify
whatever part they played?
Photo lighting illuminates
those things you wish to hide
Nothing better can illustrate
their failure to provide
Never victim of circumstance,
you are alone to blame
Suffer silent with endurance
or beg for help in shame
Crimson lipstick on juvenile
A struggle to survive
Driven, searching, safe domicile
To live and be alive
Hoping, aiming for acceptance
Settle for something less
Until finding that permanence,
clock in, and then undress