melissaahowells

      Poet's Home             All Poetry       Sign Up!  Login
© 2000-2022 Individual Authors of the Poetry. All rights reserved by authors.   522160 Poems Read.

Search for Poetry

   


Read Poetry
The Petty Player Who Rarely Sleeps

I'd Like A Taste (The Wolf Said)

The Crow Is A Black Bird

When I Start to Bloom

I'd Like To Be Your Shirt (when you wake up in the morning)



All Beings Considered

Words Between Edward And Jane

Nothing's Sadder Than A Rose

The Great Tsunami Of Our Growing Grief written 3/2.2021--retitled 3/14/2021

After Wide Sargasso Sea ( For Those of You Readers Who Have Empathy For the First Mrs. Rochester.)

WAITING ON THE WORLD (March/February 2021 poetry)

Wild and Unraveling

What Must Be

These Hands Exist July 4 2023 rei-edited 7/12/2023

I Am The Color Of Black

The Tide of Your Lies (2019-2023)

How I Wanted Your Pearls 6/24/2023 WRITTEN DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE

Love Wants What Love Wants re-edited 5/31/023

Winter's Been Too Long.... 4/18/2023 (LONGING)

The Dreaming Life ( A Series Of Dream Vignettes)

Like A Small Street Dog Lured In By The Promise Of Meat

This Is What Mermaids Dream Of

At Night, As I Dream of Vampires Who Have No Bad Intentions

And You Will Be Called Ashes As You Leave ( from a dream)

Certainly No Bread 3/16/2022

Someone Send Out A Search Party

THE FAN , AT NIGHT, GIVES GOOD ADVICE completely re-edited, an entirely different poem

What Is The Price For Your Touch? re-editied 5/31/2023

Where Is My Bed With The Pleasing Tree -Lined View(NOW REEDITED)

Oh What Fine Physics (Before Me ,Lies) re-edtited @4/17/2023

If Prejudice Were Dumb And Could Not Speak

THE COMPANY THAT WE KEEP WITH THE ONE WITHIN

More Poetry >>

 
Features

  Sign Guestbook

Read Guestbook

 
   

Soothe (re-edited 1:40Pm 8/17/21 for clarity for me as a five year old)


the messages
are mix tapes
no sense of making nonsense
pretending to care
when the attention
is diffused and elsewhere
born into the world
and immediately wished away
forgotten

teachers and kids
don't get you at all
too shy too quiet too stupid
they push, you fall
when you open your mouth
to speak
they tell you
"what gall..."
swish you away on down the hall
and forgotten

the Reverend-Minister claims
to be a kind friend
Death seems much kinder
he calls them again
--the police take Daddy away
whose shame is it
whose sin is it now
and when you ask him
he tugs  \on his collar
and gives you his scowl
and wishes you away
and forgotten

the relatives know every detail
and every little thin lie
the know your particulars
but they haven't felt the hell
knowing what's best for you
though they don't wear your shoes
making your decisions
you're too young to refuse
the look wear
registers shame and disgrace
they wish you away
solve the problem
on your own and soon again
you are forgotten

Now
you're bigger in your shoes
you're not as tall as most
you're whittled down a bit
you're scarred a bit more than most
you shun the meat
make it on the crumbs of the toast
shrinking
while you wear the ill-fitting disguise
you've learned how to clean up the mess
but not manage your life, their lies...
how do you
soothe?

soothe--
keep my insides smoothed
and tucked in
don't let them spill out
and make me feel like
navigating my life
isn't done off a cliff

the next step I take
I might miss
and fall
break down
to be destroyed on the rocks
right beside
cool calm waters

I didn't ask to be
someone's daughter

the vanity project
my peers' punching practice
the minister's bully-pulpit
the perfect problem to be plugged
into someone's left or right socket

soothe me
hold me
tell me it'll be fine
why do you continue on with
the lie

why
Mum and Da
did you not ever tell me
it would be alright?

you could've at least
lied
five year olds don't understand
at times
that the hours are not forever
nor the soothing lie

instruct me in the ways
now that I'm no longer five...
please, soothe.



LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM/WORK/ 11:57AM PST 8/17/2021 TIME AND DATE STAMPED
AND ALSO FOR THIS POET/WRITER MELISSA A. HOWELLS
AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGAL COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED SITE ID
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD....WRITTEN DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE



re-edtied NOVEMBER 26 2021 11:42PM PST. MANY CHILDREN FROM DIFFICULT FAMILIES
ARE NOT TOLD THAT THINGS WILL BE ALRIGHT...AND THERE IN, LIES THE DEEP WHOLE/HOLE
OF THE PROBLEM. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN LET THEM KNOW IT WILL BE ALRIGHT
AND HOW TO SOOTHE THEMSELVES.





Vote for this poem