Knowledge

Teen Experience

Sometimes life feels we are cut off from the world.

It feels like we are all alone in the world,

No one knows who we are.

Sometimes we don’t know who we are ourselves.

We are just pawns in this world.

Some people see people differently

Than how they see themselves.

They think a person looks happy,

But they are really unhappy.

Some people are thin but they think they are fat.

Some people are pretty but they think they are not pretty.

People are just one giant puzzle that no one gets.

Some people just wish the world would stop forever,

Some want it to stop for a minute or two.

The ones who think they have it all under control

Are fooling themselves

Because they are just as messed up as the rest of the world.

Some turn to God for help.

Some turn to Satan.

Some just give up on it all.

Some just stuff it inside themselves,

And it comes out at the worst of times.

Some make bad choices

And some choose

Writing poems, singing, acting

Or doing crafts.

All people are the same.

We all have feelings and problems

And a way to take care of problems.

No one is perfect.

They may look or say they are

But they are not.

No one is.

- C.

- K.

Forget It

But sometimes I blow it.

I can’t stand being left out.

Of course I don’t scream out loud,

You suck, you jackass!

I would be sent to the nuthouse,

Chained to a bed, a needle in my ass.

Sometimes people don’t know when to quit.

I generally feel like throwing a fit.

Stop all the generalizing

And stereotyping

We are human no matter how greasy we look.

Why do we bring others down to lift ourselves up?

Just listening to the critics

Makes me want to smother them with a pillow.

Just accept people for the way they are.

Stop fitting them into neat boxes.

We are all the same –

We’ve all screwed up.

You can’t get inside us

Unless you accept and love.

- J.

Some People

Some people spend their entire lives advocating

For a thought I had when I was twelve:

Do what you want

No one can stop you.

But you are lucky if you can stop yourself before it’s too late.

You call this a revolution?

You actually think all the wrongs of society

Will disappear if you cut your hair into a mohawk?

Or go around breaking other people’s stuff?

You attack the less fortunate too,

Because you are too much of a pussy

To break a window on a BMW

(for fear of being caught)

So you break some poor guys Pinto and call it a rebellion.

Against what?

- K.

A World for Me

A world without limitations,

A world of peace

Where the human race works together

To save the world we have destroyed:

That is a world for me.

A world where we invent ways

That get us what we want

While in harmony with nature:

That is a world for me.

A world where we all get along,

All races, all sexes:

That is a world for me.

That world may not exist,

But one can always dream.

I Wish for Heaven

I am hoping for a world

Where people understand each other’s pain,

And sympathize with it.

They rejoice in what everyone

Contributes to this world.

I am hoping for a place

Where I can finally be able to feel safe.

No more bomb threats

No more guns

No more hushed secrets and whispers

No cruel jokes about weight or face-

Just listen, and you will hear the cries.

Open your heart and soul,

See the beauty that lies

Inside us all.

I Can’t Even Turn My TV On without being Discussed and Minimized

Have you ever stood in front of a mirror

And pulled the fat off your hips,

Just to know what you’d look like

If you didn’t eat for a week?

I think you have.

Have you made it through that week,

Still in front of the mirror imagining

What you’d look like with smaller thighs,

Still tugging and pulling at what’s left of your waist.

If not, you will.

Every 30 minutes a calvin klein commercial comes on,

With some holocaust victim-looking crack whore

Half naked on the television.

Every 10 minutes mtv shows a bunch of tucked tummies

And breast implants crawling all over the ground.

And this is what boys expect us to look like?

What is it you want me to do?

Starve myself to look like Kate Moss

Strip down to my underwear

Crawl around on the floor?

Is that what I have to do to get some attention?

Someday you’ll feel what I feel

And rip your own heart out.

We will never be equals.

I Don’t Need Nobody

I don’t need nobody

To make me happy

I don’t need nobody

To make me sad

I don’t need nobody

To make me feel good

I don’t need nobody

To make me feel bad

I don’t need nobody

To be with me

I don’t need nobody

To hang out with me

I don’t need nobody

But my friends and family.