Bad Kid Wonderland Brain: A Poem About ADHD
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Colored outside the lines again
Choked
On black and white rules
Can’t get it right
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Judges say it’s easy
Just try — Don’t be lazy
And I’m like
Oh my god — Stop
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Easy just and lazy
Those four-letter
Ableist curses
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I’ve heard ADHD
Called invisible — That’s funny
Cuz my sins pull focus
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Too much — Too loud — Can’t keep up
She’s a mess
Branded bad kid
Out of line
She’s not even trying
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Textbook symptoms can’t keep quiet
Flashing yellow — Caution
Don’t play with her
Take warning
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And I’m like — Please — Stop
I heard you — It hurts
Look
Thin skin
Bruised blue
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Like last-minute homework
I’m returned — Rejected
Scarred in red pen
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Standing
Alone on the gallows
Lit yellow — blue — red
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Facing judges — always — again
All lined up — Armed
In matching black and white
Dressed to kill
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Enough
Burn that script
Blood dried
I’m done
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I won’t plead
This time
I’m telling you
Keep your noose off my neck
Look — Reflect
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Here — I brought us a mirror
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Judges
Meet yourselves
Cold-eyed and captive
Gripping skeleton keys
To self-made cages
White and black looking back
All wearing tragedy’s mask
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And me
Already
I’m gone like Alice
Chasing bright magic chaos
Primary colors — Wonderland brain
All options — No lines needed
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See
While you met your own
White wigs — black robes and masks
I escaped through the glass
I wrote this piece for Vocal Media’s Color is Pride: True Colors challenge (supported by Moleskine). The prompt was to submit a poem about something that makes you unique, no matter how big or small, inspired by the idea of color.
