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Can't You See I'm Crying?
'It's a charade, you know,' reminds runner up in our Teen Angst Poetry Contest.
[Editor’s note: Here’s the other runner up in our surprisingly popular Teen Angst Poetry Contest. Drumroll, please…]
I read Sassy magazine (circa 1992), liked drama and art class, and had this huge crush on this skater guy. I really, really liked the skater types in general (ooh, rebellious) and this guy was like my dream man. I wrote a lot of poems for him lamenting our missed love connection, but by grade 11, I was giving up hope of him ever being my boyfriend or of being popular in general. Still, when he paid attention to me by playfully borrowing my supplies in art class or smiling that (still) killer smile, my hope would return, then turn into the despair that fuelled free verse masterpieces like this one:
Can't you see I'm crying?
I'm crumbling
within the four walls
of my haven.
You don't see, you don't want
to see me shatter.
It will soon amuse you
as I take on
proportions of a circus
freakshow.
I silently cry and beg you
to notice me
care
that's all I hope.
Please, I cannot ask you.
It's a charade, you know.
Through the wire that connects us
distortion changes me
happy
act, it's what I've been trained to do.
So you cannot see
how I cry out,
and hope.
To see the other runner-up, click here. Next week: the big winner (ooh it’s bad!). ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Te Aro Arahina
6 years ago
Comments on "Can't You See I'm Crying?"
Confessions of insincerity.
Emotional stability best described with words like "circus freakshow".
I guess these things have to have worked for someone.
Rahrichie
6 years ago
Yo Te;
Its teen agnst, which by its nature is shallow and poorly thought out. Its how growing kids learn to express and come to grips with their emotions.
Sure its embarrassing and clumsy, thats part of growing up. Jeez, did you emerge from the womb a fully developed politized totally together person? You never had a shakey beginning where you were finding your own way and did some embarrassing things?
crazyfrazy
6 years ago
Teen angst at its best! This one should have won for sure! If this is the runner up, the winner must be really hot. I wonder who this guy is anyways that inspired the poem. Was he worth all the angst, or did he grow up to be a loser in the end?