12 year old girl

She knows she’s young, but she’s lost her fun. 

In so little years, she’s been filled with so many fears. 

Her mother scolds, tells her she’s lacking goals. 

She sits and reads Matilda. 

Her mother says to be more like her sister. 

She’s told she’s not pretty, but she knows she’s just a kid. 

They tell her without a boyfriend she could never fit in. 

She loves to skip, and loves her toys. She just wants friendship. 

Doesn't matter if it's with girls or with boys. 

And as sixth grade ends and she’s lost her friends

Who are so eager to go and grow up

She decides to keep quietly to herself

Or else they’ll tell her to shut up. 

She loves being a kid, and still wants to play pretend.

Doesn’t want to worry about makeup. 

Doesn’t want to worry about growth. 

Doesn’t want to style her hair, still wants to keep it short. 

She's told she looks like a boy, but she likes being different

She doesn’t want to be irreverent.

She still feels like she’s eleven and just wants to keep on shining. 

Wants to keep looking at the world as amazing

She doesn’t know what to do. 

She loves a man who is 22. 

She knows that she is much too young. 

And surely he just thinks of her as young and dumb. 

He gives her a smile and walks on by. 

He calls her “little Pop tart” and gives her a high five. 

She dreams of 10 years going by, When she’ll be allowed to be in his life. 

But she thinks by then he’ll have a wife 

And she’ll just dream of being no one's bride. 

Will she have another chance? Was this her only shot? 

She wonders what high school will be like. Will it be a chance to restart? 

She still wishes to make her mother proud. 

But her mother wants a form fitted child. 

She couldn’t be a pageant queen and couldn’t dance or sing. 

She just likes to climb trees and read, and still wants that into her teens.

For this little twelve year old girl life was a nonstop whirl. 

The days go by too fast, and she feels pretty soon she’ll be looking her last. 

As all her schoolmates gossip and change

She doesn’t want to turn that page. 

She thinks about him everyday. 

And the days remain the same, insane. 

She’s getting older and she just wants to go back. 

She takes old pictures, and puts them in order. 

So that she can always look back. 

So that she can try to relive the past

Reviews

[nisha]

i’m ngl this made me tear up a bit. it wasn’t long ago but i remember the feeling of being a tween and not wanting to grow up but knowing deep down that it’s inevitable. you captured that feeling perfectly.kudos !

[MrTheatric]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you can relate to this!