Poem – Solvent

The brambles jumps and the ivy creeps,

Through my eyes and through my dreams,

I don’t want to be the sole causation of my own misery,

I don’t want circumstance to be the only reason I breathe,

I want my words to create a crescendo of colors in the minds of mankind alike,

I want to make a living dreaming, being downright beautiful, fiercely competitive, and poised to fight. 

I don’t desire to be acknowledged for anything more than the suffering I’m in makes me worth,

I can only hope to create a gossamer opus from all the tears,

A portrait thus picturesque lacking shrieks, more cheer,

For all of it to not hurt absolutely, so positively, till it’s nothing much,

I’ll silently scream to the universe with clenched fists, then calm outstretched hands,

Because life is something beautiful even when it doesn’t give into such demands. 

I don’t want to be solvent in an age of an anyways dwindling middle class,

I want to be kind to myself, to let out weird snort chuckles and have my giggles make me laugh. 

I don’t want to be perceived as anything close to perfect, because I know if that’s even really a thing, the bar, well, I’m far from it,

But, I know I deserve to be happy,

I just want to have the grace to ask of it. 

Joseph Stcharles is a young poet whose writing is inspired by the beauty of nature in the Great Pacific Northwest. His writing is deeply personal and stems from the magic of his close familial bonds and the outdoors.