Struggle Poems
In the Back of Math Class
by AP Writes
No one asked
why I laughed too hard at 9 a.m.,
why my hands shook
when the room was too quiet,
why my bag clanked,
why I kept a hoodie on
even in the heat.
I was thirteen,
and life felt too big to touch,
......
Glass ghost
by AP Writes
You sit where I swore I’d never see you again—
bottle half-drained,
still sweating in the dark,
like you never left.
You wear my fingerprints
like trophies.
You know what I’ll do
before I do it.
......
Clammy Hands Around the Throat of a Bottle
by AP Writes
I was eleven
when the burn started to feel like home—
not the fire,
but the numb that followed.
The breathtaking silence
of my brain slowly
shutting down.
It wasn’t rebellion,
not really.
......
Hall Pass
by AP Writes
We passed pens like rumors
in the bathroom,
smoke curling
into secrets we never wanted to keep.
It wasn’t rebellion,
more like trying to make the day
a little softer around the edges,
like padding a fall
we already knew was coming.
......
The Ache Beneath the Thirst
by AP Writes
I was eleven
when I learned the burn of vodka
could quiet the voice in my head,
the one that kept asking
why am I still here?
I drank from a water bottle filled with Bicardi
in the back of 8th grade history,
and the teacher’s words became
white noise I floated in.
......
The Ache Beneath the Thirst
by AP Writes
I was eleven
when I learned the burn of vodka
could quiet the voice in my head,
the one that kept asking
why am I still here?
I drank from a water bottle filled with Bicardi
in the back of 8th grade history,
and the teacher’s words became
white noise I floated in.
......
Hall Pass
by AP Writes
We passed pens like rumors
in the bathroom,
smoke curling
into secrets we never wanted to keep.
It wasn’t rebellion,
more like trying to make the day
a little softer around the edges,
like padding a fall
we already knew was coming.
......
Clammy Hands Around the Throat of a Bottle
by AP Writes
I was eleven
when the burn started to feel like home—
not the fire,
but the numb that followed.
The breathtaking silence
of my brain slowly
shutting down.
It wasn’t rebellion,
not really.
......
In the Back of Math Class
by AP Writes
No one asked
why I laughed too hard at 9 a.m.,
why my hands shook
when the room was too quiet,
why my bag clanked,
why I kept a hoodie on
even in the heat.
I was thirteen,
and life felt too big to touch,
......
Glass ghost
by AP Writes
You sit where I swore I’d never see you again—
bottle half-drained,
still sweating in the dark,
like you never left.
You wear my fingerprints
like trophies.
You know what I’ll do
before I do it.
......
