Sunday, July 1, 2012

Compliant Child


                (Google Images)               

Too eager to please
somehow knowing
the key to survival
is submission
stuffing want and need
far far away

growing wiser
means understanding this:
being silent
ignored
avoiding notice
is far easier on the soul than attention

learning to bend will
to others
selling control
for lack of upheaval
a deadening but necessary
choice

lessons learned in childhood
and youth
recreate the compliant child
into one ripe
for relationships
unmerciful

6 comments:

  1. So sad yet so beautiful... the second stanza especially speaks to me. Why is it we feel unworthy like that?

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  2. Thought-provoking! If only poetry could change the world....

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  3. Heartbreakingly oft true, good insight.

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  4. This hits right in the gut, right where it belongs. Amazingly done, Emma.

    de jackson

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  5. This is true in so many ways. One of the things adults have to do is unlearn those lessons and unhear those voices..

    XOXOX

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