“Here is the question: If you could talk to your 16-year-old self, what would you say? What advice, warnings, or encouragement would you give your younger self?”
Letter to Myself at Sixteen
I saw you on the street today
eyeliner planting little black seeds
in your tear ducts.
I picture you reading this
in one of your dreams, a jumble
of banned books, torn paper, frayed
blankets and advertising logos
where you work on your future
every rough or delicate detail
like the pieces in a child’s wooden puzzle:
shaped for incremental comprehension.
In this dream I have
your brief attention:
the past cannot be censored
and my archaeology is your future.
I want to protect you, bony girl
warn you away from what dazzles you
snatch the broken glass from your plate
but I’m just another
grown-up woman, creased brow
and a purse stuffed with middle-age
heading home to a quiet house
where paper sacks
filled with outgrown toys
wait by the door.
____________________________________________________© 2012 Erica Goss
Erica Goss bio: Erica Goss is the winner of the 2011 Many Mountains Moving Poetry Contest. Her chapbook, Wild Place, was published in 2012 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems, articles and reviews have appeared in many journals, most recently Connotation Press, Hotel Amerika, Pearl, Main Street Rag, Rattle, Eclectica, Blood Lotus, Café Review, Zoland Poetry, Comstock Review, Lake Effect, and Perigee. She won the first Edwin Markham Poetry Prize in 2007, judged by California’s Poet Laureate Al Young, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010. Erica is a contributing editor for Cerise Press, and writes a column on video poems for Connotation Press. She holds an MFA from San Jose State University. Visit her website.
A beautiful, elegiac, journey ~ archeology as future and the toys that wait by the door…
Erica, thank you for sharing this intimate and engaging poem. “I’m just another grown-up woman, creased brow and a purse stuffed with middle-age” Simply beautiful.
This prompt was harder than I thought it would be. In the end, I wanted her to know that I missed her and the kid I used to be, warts and all. I hoped for a dialog between us.
Wow, I really loved this. I liked this line in particular: “a purse stuffed with middle-age/
heading home to a quiet house”
Thanks so much for sharing this. I love the acceptance here.
Beautiful, Erica. Love the imagery and sentiment – “black seeds/ in your tears ducts” wow.
Beautiful poem. I love the images. I think the sense of wanting to protect one’s younger self is very powerful and forgiving. Could make you cry.
A masterful poem, Erica. Such powerful, evocative imagery. Heart-stopping. I, too, love the “purse stuffed with middle age.” Thank you.
A sad but beautiful poem. It clearly depicts how we feel–as we grow older, we’re constantly remembering our younger days. Something poignant…the smell continues to linger when the petals have long fallen to the ground…
I am also riveted by your poem and I recognise the teenage girls we see everywhere in it. The challenge would be for me to write one to myself as a sixteen year old boy. I will contemplate this. Meanwhile you might be interested in my poem “Make Way For the Boys” on my site! By the way I agree about the fantastic imagery – you blend skill with personal emotion so well. I agree about all those mentioned .. and others! What’s more your poem has the spirit of Compassion..