Gold by Cole Hammer

“You’re the ‘golden child’”
Star student
People notice you
Like a meteor streaking across a dark horizon
You’re great
Act like it
Please
Inside my programmed layers
Happiness, perfection
Politeness
Pretty smiles,
Those jokes
I use to counter
The hot air of another’s words
Brushing against my cheek
Relaxation
Normalcy
All that shit
There’s me
Half the dark and featureless figure
I drag across the ground
A wisp of a broken shadow
Of who I was
Am supposed to be
Surrounded with fear
Once molded
Now melted
Once formed
Now gone
Only held in
Through strung wire
Solid sunlight
The kind that you see
In an empty room with
An open window
Strands
Of gold
Intertwined
Caging me
Like a stone set in a ring
In a slowly
Eroding
Statue
Sculpture
Body
Me

Cole is a 13 year old who writes poetry about his life problems and mental health. He has recently been selected to appear in the next issue of Oyster River Pages as an emerging poet.