Verbs, not adjectives,
Some coming right out of the computer screen,
Your friends texting you, bills arriving,
Family concerns and work appointments,
Your ambitious friends no longer friends
As photographed scenes come to life,
Mocking you, the stag, the ram, in each mirrored hall.
Some of the verbs too passive to seem like verbs at all.
You were the smart one, but as you think, in your room,
You notice something happening. No one wants you.
You try, you try every adjective, you cry.
Adjectives grow. You’re one of them.
They describe you in crude terms
Because once you showed up wearing the wrong thing.
The flat note, the low note, the utterance,
The key change. Alone, but not in front of them, you sing.