Slam Poems/Poetry

Ginger

Home- I can feel it

Following me around

A shadow trailing behind me

I wake up, dragging my fingers through the rough curls

Rubbing my eyes, I get out of bed

That head of hellfire iron weighing me down

I dread looking in the mirror

Slowly, I look up and meet her eyes

"Hello," she says

I ignore it, trying not to think about the comments coming my way

I turn on the iron, Carefully wrapping the strands of liquid fire around the metal

I try to hide her as much as I can

I pull her back into a ponytail

I try not to think about it too hard

I don't need to be reminded of her

Following me around

Shown plainly for all to see

I debate putting a bow in it...No

It wouldn't look good with this colour

I walk downstairs, unhappy with my appearance

I catch a glimpse of myself in the window

A cascade of cursed rubies glinting dangerously in the sun behind me

I look away

School- I walk through the doors

Immediately shrinking down

Into a shell of myself

I head to the bathroom

Quickly checking that she's still in check

I yank it back to the point of pain

Because pain=beauty

beauty=pain

But, who could ever be beautiful,

When a red shadow follows them everywhere,

Kissing the ground where they walk

Framing my life with stained glass windows, like that of a church

That red glass tainting the perspective of people around

"Why me?"

I get compared to him

Everybody knows who he is

His shadow is twice as big as mine

We have that in common

I know he has it worse

But I can't help but think "Why me?"

I know he feels that shadow

That mountain he pulls each day to get up

That curse that follows us

That shadow that creeps up on us

That ginger hair that belongs, all, to us