She is not a girly-girl, he said.
Not realizing most girls aren’t.
She may say things that surprise you, he interjected.
Not knowing that most girls do.
I am not sure if she is a tomboy or not, he admitted.
Not knowing many girls, actually, maybe not knowing any.
Including this one.
The girl sat in the corner, thinking.
Plotting her escape from this man
Who had never taken the time to know her at all.
Her mother had died in childbirth,
and she had been homeschooled.
She had no idea if she was a real girl, a tom girl
or a tom boy girl.
In this setting, she had no identity at all.
But she was a thinker, and a plotter.
She could play the piano, and plant a garden.
She could travel with her imagination to the sky.
So she did that.
Living every day in a make believe world
Her nirvana included deer, butterflies, and unicorns.
She lived it happily,
far away from the only person who should have known her
But clearly did not.
Majority of our lives are spent searching. What are we searching for clues, waldo, meaning to life, how is death, where are my keys, and where is my phone. Believing the hype is just what it is. Believing in something you do not know anything about. How is that? Is Reality real? Is the letter "g" really green or was the homeschooled kid you called weird told you that. Ek does not call him weird. She went to a public school along with everybody else. Now what gender is the homeschooled kid?
I don't worry about losing my lunch money
Or being late for the bus.
I don't worry about detention-
Being homeschooled is a plus!
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.