No One Knew (Profiles #2)

By Andrew R. Duckworth

She was alone,
Dropped out at eighteen,
Thinking of all the things
She would have to do just to be seen.
She had dreams,
Somehow, Somewhere, Sometime,
But that was way back when.
They shattered like the glass
That daddy threw at the wall.
And the boy was out the door
Because he wanted to be more
Than a father in his late teens.
No one knew.

She was alone,
A whisper beneath a shout,
Thinking of all the things
She would have to do just to stand out.
Her friends wondered where she was
When she didn’t hang around because
She couldn’t meet their eyes.
Her head was full of goodbyes
She was planning to say
Because she had decided
She was going away.
She needed a new place.
No one knew.

She was alone,
If only there was someplace
She could lay her burdens down.

I have two methods for creating longer works. Occasionally, and this is the least successful of the two, I’ll begin by fleshing out a world for my characters to thrive in. The more successful of the two for me is creating characters. The world is created by the experiences I write with my characters. After all, we all experience things differently. This doesn’t mean that objective reality doesn’t exist, of course it does, but it does mean that there is a subjectivity that I think we all too often fail to recognize. I have completely different experiences on the daily than the person next to me, and so on.

Recently, I decided to take some characters and tell their stories by way of poetry. Who is this character? I have no idea, other than a person who has had an incredibly difficult life. It might surprise you as the reader, but I am just as curious about this character that I created as you may be having read it. Her story is not finished, but I have no idea where she goes from here. I hope this character fights through. I hope this character slaps adversity’s face. Most importantly, I hope this character finds a place to lay her burdens down.