The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Nineteen feels like standing
at the top of a hill
I climbed too fast,
heart still behind me.
I hear the light fading,
the word ‘teen’ shriveling up
like petals left too long in the sun.
Sixteen sticks to me, glued between
what was and what’s been,
thinking time would hesitate,
thinking growing up would wait.

I tried to plant myself,
to find something to hold onto,
but the ground was thin,
and I kept slipping
I grew like a plant kept too close to the light
stretching before my stem was ready,
learning how to lean
instead of how to root.

I wasted my youth,
reaching for things I wasn’t ready for,
unfolding before I knew how to hold myself,
wishing the wind that guided me
hadn’t become a storm.
My last year as a teen, but
I want to stay wrapped in childish moments,
still sixteen in heart,
loved by quiet wind,
before the light drags me forward
into what I’m not ready for.

even from the hardest soil, something grew,
a love like sunlight beaming through,
soft warmth in the midst of a bittersweet tragedy,
reminders that even broken seasons
can leave gifts behind.