By: Emmalee S.

I wrote a poem based off of many common mental illnesses that are easy to overlook. I included anxiety, body dysmorphia, depression, and anorexia. I felt the need to write about these because many of my friends struggle with them and have trouble conveying it to others. In my opinion, I thought that a poem would tell the story of my friends better than anything else would, and I think it was the right decision. I think that a poem can put to words what an essay has a hard time doing and I really loved working on this.

Honorable Mention · Middle School Writing (2022)

“Never enough”, they say
They will never know,
That you tear yourself apart
When your all alone

Day by day, you sink way down
In the quicksand that tells you
“You’ll never wear a crown”

Look in the mirror,
See something you hate
“On a scale of one to ten”,
The pain you cannot rate

Crying at midnight,
When no one can hear
Drowns out the voices,
Ringing in your ear

Zoning out and not caring
“You used to loving doing that”
Fear and sorrow
Your soul’s in combat

Can’t tell the truth
They don’t understand
If they could read your mind,
Maybe they’d reach out a hand

The NyQuill stopped working,
The meds, you can’t buy
Your only 14,
Yet tears stream from your eye

“I’m sorry”
“I tried”
They don’t know,
Your dying inside

The doctors keep asking
The numbers drop on the scale
You say, “I’m fine”
They see through your veil

Losing relationships
Everything’s gone
Trying to turn pages
Suffering goes on

You never told them,
They never knew
Now that you open up
They see what you’ve been through

15 years later,
Way down the road
You “wasted” 7 years,
About to implode

It wasn’t for nothing
I promise you that,
It gave you more scars,
For people to look at

Though they seemed useless,
Though it was tough,
You grew, and you grew,
Forever enough