My Pain

by Diamond Brant

(Oklahoma City)

 

My pain is like the dirt that I try to pick up under my fingernails

after trying to dig up the broken memories buried in the dirt

that I want to forget and leave,

but my pain haunts me wherever I go.

 

My pain is like the last crumb in a bag of your favorite chips,

but you can’t reach it so you leave it.

 

My pain does not get released from the prison

that has never been found in twelve and a half years,

so I cry.

 

My pain always comes

like a mother giving birth

to a beautiful new life into the world.

 

My pain will never be explained good enough

to the point where you could understand.

 

My pain is more than a scrape on a knee

when a little girl falls off her bike;

it’s more like a bone out of the bare skin.

 

My pain is not what you would want to experience.

 

My pain is what makes me

such a powerful girl,

young lady, and future woman.