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Brooke Zerbs Poem
If I never grow up
I won't lose the piece of me
That was once a part of you.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
I want to write love poems
About what i feel inside
But every instinct i have
Just tells me to hide
I bleed on paper
I write out my blues
So how can i change
And write happy things too?
I keep the hopeful thoughts locked up
Tucked close to my heart
“Let no person see it,
No word line or part”
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
Distance, even for a short while, still is
Whether it’s a river or a stream, you still need a bridge
But bridges burn
And even when they don’t
They weather
They rot
They fall apart so slowly
You don’t notice until the floorboards have collapsed beneath you
And you’re left with nothing
Just the remnants of the bond you thought would last forever
Clutched to your chest in agony as you desperately try to fit the pieces back together
Tape and glue and screws and staples won’t fix it
So you begin to fall apart, too
And those staples and screws and tape and glue
Are never enough
To get you through.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
The appeal of blonde hair never spoke to me until now
I was content with the plain brown
But then your blue gaze snagged onto mine
And now it’s taking all I have not to drown.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
You don’t want me.
I’m broken and bruised
I’m a web of ugly scars from my healing
I’m a fraud
I’m a jittery, anxious idiot who can’t stop thinking
I’m the friend that always dampens the mood
I’m a product of my racing heart and mind colliding
I’m someone who feels such heaviness but can’t cry
I spend every second trying to please others
I put on a show with a smile
Then give up and run away
I collapse at any small problem
My heart sinks if my mother can’t find her wallet
I lose my breath when the recycling won’t fit in the can
I’m so Obsessive that it’s impossible to hide it
So I shrug it off
Make it something else
Try to become the person others need
The good friend.
I give everything just to be chosen.
And I try desperately to hide most of myself
Because if you really saw me,
You wouldn’t want me.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
I look down now
And I can just barely see
The thin, pale white lines
From the girl I used to be
The girl who’s not so far gone
Not as dead as you think
But instead of watching skin bleed
She now just puts it in ink
As the clock ticked faster
The calendar pages flipped
More and more time passed
And the scars started to slip
You hear that she’s clean
She has been for years
6 months, one year, two?
If only it were that clear.
If only she could say she’s better
And no urge lingers in her head
It’s a part of her now, she won’t escape it
At least, not until she’s dead.
She’ll spend her whole life chasing
That high that she once knew
And because she can’t do it herself
There’s no danger she won’t pursue.
She’d climb the tallest mountains
With little fear of fall
Because if she took a plunder
She’d be at peace, after all.
To her, it doesn’t count
Grabbing lamps and hot glue
Burning isn't cutting
It’s an accident, too.
She yelps and she complains
Griping about the burn
When really what it feels like
Is a quick, quiet return.
Every now and then
Her skin feels an itch
A jittery, gaping feeling
Longing to be stitched.
She’ll resist it best she can
Deny it till it’s true
But still, she’ll never cease to long
For the feeling she always knew.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
what if what we had was temporary
a momentary glance of happiness
of freedom
of joy
of reckless youth
a time of love and carelessness
maybe that was where our memory is supposed to stay
maybe it wasn’t meant to continue on into this decade.
Maybe the sun never rose up again after it set that summer.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
Oh, I want to go back
To when forever was possible
When I was still falling asleep on your couch
When our only fears were of monsters in the dark
When we would get so mad at our parents for not letting us have sleepovers
I miss you so much it physically hurts
But I would go through the pain
Over and over
I’d embrace the tears spilling like ink from my pen
If we could just be us again.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
“Why are you friends with someone like her when you could be friends with popular people?”
Someone like her.
Someone who doesn’t stand out
Not with looks
Not with personality
Plain girl doesn’t talk to boys
She doesn’t wear makeup or buy the right clothes
She spends her free time doing homework or writing poetry
If she's beautiful, it’s the kind nobody sees
At least, they don’t see past her flaws
the way she collapses into herself while in public,
Crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders to be as invisible as possible
They won’t look past the anxiety that extinguishes any confidence
Because plain girl isn’t worth the effort
She’s just there.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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Brooke Zerbs Poem
I’ve realized, lately
I don’t want to be seen,
I live in the darkness
Hide behind a screen.
Whatever virus appeared
Attached itself to my heart,
It hasn’t left since
And it’s ripping me apart.
Because heaven descended
And took them from me,
Just as I thought
I was finally free.
Funeral after funeral
They came and they went,
Till all of me was shattered
and battered and spent.
My heart was broken
My hair was dyed,
But I couldn’t go back
So I cried and I cried.
Then they sent me away
With a journal and pen,
But despite all they tried
I was never me again.
And when I tried getting up
Tried crawling from the ash,
A shadow pulled me down
And I fell with a crash.
Time after time
I gave it my all,
But still, they abused it
And hung up the call.
Piece after piece
They ripped me apart,
Disrupting my healing
Now I’m back to the start.
I’m fearful and damaged
As my grades start to slip,
I’ll sit on the next couch
With silence on my lips.
I’ve never been perfect
And didn’t claim to be,
But the last time was bad
So I wish they could see
I wish they could see
The girl I’ve become,
When I went on without them
Living, but numb.
I’m reeling but healing
One piece at a time,
But I’m still so d*mn scared
Of calling things mine.
Copyright © Brooke Zerbs | Year Posted 2025
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