I Don't Care

There are a lot of emotions in this poem. I have felt this all at some point in time and am still going throigh these things but i am working through it. I hope you all enjoy it.

I’ve wanted to drown in the seas

To drop myself from the trees

Can find a place to scream

All this pain I wish would go away

But every time, it always seems to stay.

I don’t care what people think about me

I don’t care what people want me to be

I don’t care if I am not who I am supposed to be

I don’t care if people don’t see me for who I really am

I don’t care if people think I am not good enough

I always have to say yes ma’am 

My life isn’t perfect and I know it

I don’t care if it’s perfect, not even a little

I just don’t want to feel brittle

I don’t care about being successful or famous 

I don’t care if people shame us

I don’t care about money 

I don’t care about the reward

I don’t care about being funny

I don’t care about things I can and can’t afford

I don’t care about setting a record 

I don’t care about this thing in my back called a knife

I don’t care about the worlds that have and haven’t been explored

I don’t even care about life

Then why am I living it?

Why am I still here when I want all this pain to go away?

Why do I not run?

Why do I stay?

Why do I try to have “fun”

When all I want to do is go away?

Why do I not care?

Not care about being rare?

Why do I hide and not fight?

This hold they have on me is too tight

Why do I hide behind a mask?

I guess I’m too scared to ask

Why do I cry under the stars and moon?

I guess it’s like a tune

A tune that makes me think of you

Why do I feel like I can drown?

Drown in a world, where I would never be found

I’ve heard this song before

I brings tears to my eyes

I guess I can never rise

I can never take off my disguise

These are the things I despise

Not of the world or the people I lost

Or the ones that break my heart

Not even the ones I dart

These things I despise are part of me

The things that I can not be

I have said it before and I will say it again

Of course I may say it now and then 

I don’t care about fortune or treasures untold

I don’t care about solid gold

I don’t care about a dime or a quarter

I don’t care if their a hater or a supporter

I don’t care about space or time

I don’t even care if this even rhymes

By this point I am done

I am out numbered

1 million to one

I will no longer stumble or mumble

Because 

I DON’T CARE ANYMORE

And I am not one to talk

I am still alive…and I guess that is enough

Reviews

[JayG]

You say there are a lot of emotions in the poem. But in reality, and for the reader there’s only one, which is someone unknown saying: “I don’t care anymore,” for unknown reasons. But you restate that 65 times, in general terms, before getting to it.

So…let me ask the question that every reader must ask on reaching that line: Since we know nothing about you, your situation, or the events you’re reacting to, why would you expect a reader to respond with more than a shrug?

How can a reader sympathize with an unknown person being unhappy for unknown reasons? The point you forgot is that we must give the reader reason to care. Without that it’s just another dismal damsel poem. So don’t tell them how you feel, make-them-feel-it.

Nonfiction writing reports and explains. It’s fact-based, author-centric, and as interesting, to a reader, emotionally, as is any other report. But poetry and fiction are emotion-based and character-centric. They focus on making the reader feel and care, not just know.

I’m certain that the things you’re railing against were devastating…to you—as are events in my life, to me. But just as you aren’t demanding to know about those things in my life, because you know nothing about me, the reader needs more if they’re to empathize, and do more than say, “Uhh…okay.”

Is it easy to do? Hell no. But that’s why poets are paid such big bucks. 🤪

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/