The Friendship Game

You go in. You choose wisely. You work hard. The ground crumbles below your feet. Silence. When it's over, you realize: it's not worth it.

The Friendship Game
How to play: Go through life. Find friends that suite you. See what they teach you. See what you teach them. Don't fall through the cracks. Stay with them, if you choose, as long as possible.

Rules: Do not disrespect your friends. In turn, they cannot disrespect you. Three strikes and you're out.

Age five:
Let's play a game.
See where it takes you.
Please don't be scared.
The world is full of opurtunity.

The first girl you meet
She's a sweet girl, she means no harm
You step right up, taking the chance
In turn, she does too

Once you've met the girl
She becomes your friend
A best buddy always by your side
But you don't know what lies ahead...

She turns to you. You smile, and she does too.
But then, her face clouds over into darkness
Her eyes turn to fire
She sees your mouth moving. She plugs her ears
And your voice is useless to her

Strike one.

Age ten
Here, you are reborn.
You move to a new town
New opertunities await
Including a new range of friends.

The first one you meet here
A blue-eyed blond ponytail
She greets you the second day
She sees you are new

At first, she is harmless in your eyes
Though you were never scared in the first place
Just a feeling of homesickness
Yet later on, it's only you: sick of home.

Then, one day she looks at you
You look back-- she is not there
You spin around, looking, searching
Until suddenly she has you by the throat, screaming

Strike two

Age fifteen
Here you are, feeling content
You're a higher level now than you were before
You've grown a bit smarter
You've gained a whole slew of friends

They talk to each other, laughing
You speak fondly, and they love you back
You think nothing will happen now
Because you're a tight-knit group

Here you are: the present
Now you pay close attention
You see these friends-- these human beings
And they begin to turn

He badmouths her
She's in a pool of her own pity
She wants her to leave,
But neither of them do

You thought thought this was easy, did you?
You thought that drama was childish, that it was behind you?
What made you think that?
You think this is all a game?

You know for a fact: life is no game
It moves around
It makes new rules
It binds you down. You can't get out

Soon their faces are like vultures
Biting, bickering, yelling
The ground folds under you
They fall down a jagged path

You scream and cry
You fall behind
You want it all to resolve
But just when you think it's over...

It is.

Here you are
Out of high school
The game is over
You're all grown up

Nothing from before matters anymore
But nobody ever said loosing this game was bad
So now that's three strikes

You're out

Author's Note

After high school, usually all those friends you had will go off and do they're own thing. You only stay in touch with, what, three friends?
...
Yup. Pretty much. Hope you liked these jumbled-up words. I don't care if you didn't like the poem, it's really mostly for my own personal use anyway...

Reviews

[Taylor H]

i really liked this, it reminded me of a video game you keep losing but it is jsut life, and your right you lose friends after high school. im losing friends all ready and im in the 11th grade