If you wrote a poem about your childhood
Could we go and live there
A poem about lost balls
Toy soldiers
And endless summers
If you are afraid of growing up
We can hide in a verse about morning cartoons and cereal
If you hate your job
We can play hide
And never actually seek
When you feel lonely
You can relive your coziest snow day
Let's write a verse about how much we hate adults
And let's hope that time stops
Let's write about boys that know how to feel
And about girls that don't wear pink
Until the illusion of identity shatters like our dreams
This poem isn't about regrets
Or wasted potential
This poem is our new home
With pillows from your sofa
With verses about hugs and your friends
Let's write a verse about the times you cried
And how it shaped you
Let's create stories about bravery and bruises
And how the bullies of the world
Will always be afraid to look you in the eyes
Let's live in a poem about old bikes
Scraped knees
First kisses
And forgotten lullabies
Childhood was never about
Carelessness and unlimited possibilities
Just the ability to make kinder worlds
If you wrote a poem about a stranger's childhood
Would you go and live there
You might write about friendless mornings
Or wasted potential
Lines about unrequited love
Or about bullying
Maybe you'll have to rhyme violence with innocence
Can you create metaphors about visible and invisible scars
The smell of alcohol and the echoes of screams
Be prepared to write verses about death
Or verses about rape
Your story might include first breaths in the war
Or last breaths anywhere in the world
Bear in mind that you might write about the broken
That became worst than their parents
Or about the broken that never met their parents
Are you prepared to live in a poem
For those that came out of nothing and became nothing
We design societies about fairness and balance
But we seem to forget that our adulthood
Is affecting someone else's childhood
We walk this earth convinced this game will never be fair
Even though we never tried to fix it
But between the horror and the tenderness
There are a few people that were dealt a bad hand
And managed to change the narrative
The people that refused to become bitter
When everyone expected them to
They understood that each step they took
Was mocking their misfortune
The brave souls that created something out of nothing
We are in this together but each one of us is playing a very different game
Some people carry heavy shadows
With bodies and souls inked by horror stories
Some people play against greater odds than you
And win
These people when they smile
The universe smiles with them
Before you judge someone
Think about that