Hopeless Acceptance
#8 of National Poetry Writing Month
Poem number 8 for National Poetry Month. This time a bit more personal for me.
Have you ever given up? Have you ever given in? Have you ever heard something so many times that you finally stop fighting it and just accept it? Even though you know it isn't true?
Have you ever been told something or thought something so many times that you just accept that it will always be a part of you? It will always be there haunting you?
Fat. Skinny. Dumb. Alone. Poor. Useless. Too pretty to be taken seriously. Too ugly to ever find someone to love.
We fight our hardest against the labels that are pressed upon us until we manage to surpass them and rip them apart.
We scream to the world that we will not be defined by their narrow minded views of what should be and what we are.
But what if we can't overcome it? What if despite our best efforts the label continues to chase us?
Beating against the walls of our mind even when those who spoke it have long since left us alone.
What do you do when you stare at yourself in the mirror and the only thing you can see is that one problem that torments you? How do you manage when your mind and body give up and accept that nothing is ever going to change?
We all love to talk about those who have improved their lives. Waged their wars. Conquered their bodies, their fears, their problems and come out on top.
But what about those of us who have not?
What about those left behind who held onto their hope with fervent desperation until they watched it crumbled to dust in their hands?