Being a Teen

A Childhood Cancer Survivor Poem
© 2016 Christine Mulvihill

I’m finally 14, finally a teen finally here

You’d think I’d be happy you’d think I’d cheer,

Who knew how hard this could be

Second year at it and I want to flee.

I’ve had it to here with all of these responsibilities

There’s never a chance I just get to be me,

Finally a grown up yet it feels so wrong

The madness just started but it’s been so long.

I only have 2 hands and one mind

So how can I balance everything in the grind,

How can I stay standing with so much on my shoulders

They call it a small world but I’m holding up boulders,

Maybe the world could put itself on pause

While I pick up the pieces and justify this lost cause,

It’s hard to make the grades when I sit there in doubt

I’m sorry sir but my heart just fell out,

Can you give me a moment to put it back in place

And another two just to cry in disgrace.

I’m one in million no make that billion who live on this planet

Yet I seem to be the only one who can’t figure it out damn it,

I’m the only one who can’t get it all together

From school to home to dressing for the weather.

I remember the days when I was so free

Nothing to think about but my family and me,

What went wrong in my picture perfect life

Oh reality stepped in with its overbearing knife.

Now my days are all but happy and family drifts apart

It’s not only boggled my mind but broken my heart,

So I ask of the man oh way up there

Please give me an answer, send me your care,

Just a little piece for a lonely little girl

That little bit a clarity would mean the world.

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