Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.144.81.47
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
Let me tell you something you can’t tell anybody, not the principal, not my teacher, not nobody. I stopped the ten-year-old midstream. If you tell me someone is hurting you I have to tell. I am required to tell. No. Nothing like that. He did not think it was, and yet it was exactly like that, but not reportable. He has been sad since he can remember. I finally pinned him down to one happy moment five years ago. His mother is having surgery, and he is afraid she will pass away. She has told him that when she does he will be forced to live with his father. He asked if I was angry with him. I said no. I asked about grandma. Why wouldn’t he stay with her? They live there right? Mom had already told him that DFS would come tear him out of that house and take him to dad’s And he would rather be adopted than live there Mom has shared all the nasty texts between her and Dad with him. I asked him what he did to calm down? He could not think of anything. I asked what he did for stress and anxiety. He said How do you know I have anxiety? His hands are still shaking, and he keeps saying he is not going to lose control and scream or anything because that would be disrespectful. He asked if I was mad at him; he asked if I had something else to do. I said no I was not mad and assured him I have nothing else to do. He told me that in 1997 Dad told Mom that he hoped she would die, and Dad’s brother died that week. That was Karma he said. Two days ago Dad told Mom he hoped she would die during surgery, and now he was thinking that he could die. That would be karma, right? I asked him if he wanted to speak to the nurse about surgery, knowing she was an expert and all that. Three people in my family have died, he said. All of my family dies. The hands were shaking again. I have already spoken to this child’s mother about sharing wonderful things with him. We tried again to think of something that would calm him down. What is it he likes to do that works? He told me six or eight things that do not work. Are you mad at me?’ No. Do I look mad at you? Yes. I do? Yes. I am not mad at you. I asked him to think about something that helped him calm down. It might take two or three minutes he said. I told him I would wait. He could not think of anything. Wait. What about a trampoline? He used to have one, but it was left at Dad’s house. Now it made him mad to think about it. He told me he cannot wait to grow up and be a soldier, so he can fix his anger issues. I told him that sometimes when people are mad they are really sad. He told me he is always sad. The next secret he told me is that he has a black heart. None of these secrets are secrets because my office door is open and he has a loud voice. I asked him if he had a bike. Do you like to ride it? Is that relaxing? He almost had a heart attack on his bike once. He was going down a big hill and he thought he was going to die. Like the guy who had a horrible bike wreck by Quick Trip. He saw it. Not the dead body, but the cops and blood on the bike and stuff. I walked him back to class and he told me his next secret. His mom told him he has some special defect in his chest. If he gets pushed or shoved or anything he can die. When I returned to my office three adults who had heard the conversation Said to me “I would like to call his mother.” I already had, so I knew it would not help.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required