DETACHED
by Laura Dunn

I.
Phase, just a phase. Not to worry,
You’re only insane.
Dirty hippy, smoking herb,
We don’t want to share your word.
Just too liberal, just too free,
Don’t you wish you were like ---
Me me or me?
You you you,
You’ve got it wrong!
Pray to Him not to Her.
Now you’ve gone,
Please come back!
We will love you,
Just not behind your back.

II.
For what it’s worth, you were worth more.
You bit into the wrong apple, poisoned to the very core.
Your taste became corrupted, your appetite insatiable.
My desperate grasps were lost in the dark.
They spit their slander from their tongues.
Sinners all the same, closer to your fate than they could ever know.
Soft souls break slowly, then all at once.
Can I blame you for leaving this place?
I want you to know you’ll never be replaced.

III.
Words could never have broken me,
The way your silence did.
Held captive in my own thoughts,
A common prisoner to my short-comings.
So frightfully alone.
Picking up the shards of myself,
Like the pieces of a broken mirror.
I used them to slice deep into my cheeks.
Then came the blood, but I used it as war paint.
The pain only liberated me, now I am free.
I stepped out from behind your shadow,
And I shall prevail.

About the Author:

Laura Dunn is  a junior in college, majoring in creative-writing. She had two original poems published in Inkling Magazine this year. She is a dog mom, bibliophile, and  known to belt out Miley Cyrus songs in the shower.