Hanna Cochran

Reflection

I could have been gorgeous

 I could have had elaborate dresses

 With gems that glistened like the sun on the sea

I used to live as a girl should

High praise, hair as a goddess

Days of worthless gazing, doing nothing 

It was the best I could

The forest is a place for confidement

I hid my treasures and secrets

Those woods are now rivers’ slow moving current

When I am alone, it’s a cloak hiding me from the world

I would go into shadows on bittersweet days 

Heart heavy as rock,

I heave it in crushed pieces

My rain leaves leaves puddles that seep into the ground

Tears swing hot in my head

I ache and groan, the old pine shakes

Tree leaves fall, moss grows tall

I am smart

But I am kind

I am not powerful

But I am brave 

The rest isn’t so much a shame

For, I won’t be afraid.

I have stared dazed 

I have been at, glared

Yet there is no secret I haven’t shared

For that, I have prepared

I work hard, wash floors, paint fences and doors

And oh there’s so much more

I am now grown

Not ashamed of what I’ve sown

Go to the forest to enhance

You have only one life, so take a chance

I look down into myself, at myself

In the salt water pool 

 My reflection

That is who I am

This is who I’ve worked to be 

I could have been gorgeous

I am beautiful

This poem may be a bit confusing, so I’m just going to write a quick summary:  Basically, the subject of my poem is journeying within herself, to let herself out confidently.  She is reflecting on her life, at first embarrassed as what she’s become. And the forest scene was her basically becoming the forest, a part of something entirely different, “seeping into the ground”  However then she learned to embrace herself, good or bad, and she went to the forest then, to learn instead of hiding. Dirty work was not for proper girls she thought, but then she was proud of her hard working herself. 

She doesn’t have to be gorgeous on the outside to be beautiful inside to be her own unique person.