No Violence, Know Peace | Teen Ink

No Violence, Know Peace

February 2, 2024
By miyah215 BRONZE, Nyc, New York
miyah215 BRONZE, Nyc, New York
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

A place where the river never stops flowing 

A place where the community is one big family 

A place where poverty doesn’t exist

A place where a judgment free zone doesn’t just apply to Planet Fitness 

A place where the only hands laid on children are only for hugs

A place where no means no

A place where the shallow breathing heard only by her 


Gets slower and slower and slower 

While curling in the corner 

Knee's tight, arms hugging, head down 


Stay there because she doesn't know if he's back around

Stay there 

Stay there

                                                            Still there


Statue


Until it's the next day

Her brain still away, but that's where it'll stay

But her feet lead her into the library, a quiet place, her escape 


Until

A hand is raised near her face

She must duck and find shelter

Statue


"Miss are you okay, you weren't in the way, I just needed to reach for a book"

So embarrassed but the statue can't look


She is forever frozen in time. She wishes her situation could just rewind


He finally gets with the girl he’s wanted forever, heard some bad rumors about her, but he thinks he could make her better 


One night she comes home in another boys sweater 

“Who’s is this?” 

Were you gonna buy me a new one?” she says


Here comes a text from a close friend 

It’s a picture of his girl, but only her back is shown...

She is hugging another guy

But when he texted her, she responded she was alone 


He asks her about it,

"Those pants are from our first date, I am not making a mistake"

She says he’s being paranoid and his friends are idiots that she hates


She always says she never did that 

But one day 

He got proof to fight back 

He’s out with his friends to clear his mind 

Passes by a restaurant and guess who he finds 

The girl who "never does anything", out with a guy who's not him 


She doesn't see him and continues to embrace the stranger's warmth, 

They are about to leave,

                                   this is his chance,

                                                              but he soars.


Forever flying through time.

He wishes he could rewind


Her best friend 

The person she trusts with her life

He sometimes jokes that she would make the perfect wife


Sandbox memories

As one swings on the monkey bars

The other always stand under prepared to catch just in case


They haven't seen each other in forever

Since COVID and all

But she's had a major glow up and he just got tall

 

They go for their regular hug 

But it seems tighter 

Suffocating

Like he's trying to take her breath, her voice away

Nice to see you too

She vents about her relationship

She is happy

Overjoyed


He says "Who is this boy? A rotting fruit, dusty! Musty! Trust me, you would be better without him."

And who are you?, Where is this coming from?, this is so random,

                                                     Who have you become?

And with this his ego has been stung


All is forgiven and they meet up again because after all he still is her friend

They meet up at the movies 

And then her fate is sealed 


She starts to feel hands turn into knives 

Knives digging,

                       digging,

                                    digging


Suffocating her, she's suffocated

Where is her voice?

She can't find her voice!


But she finds her claws

Just in time 

Because she will fight

She fights for her voice

She doesn't have to rewind 


A place where she can unleash her claws when she needs

A place where every man doesn't turn into a monster because her best friend did

A place where no one has to rewind.

A place where no one knows what violence is


A place where peace lives and stays.


The author's comments:

This piece features three different examples of reactions to violence. Fight, flight and freeze. My prompt was to write about peace which is why I start my poem with what I consider peace but I believe you can't recognize peace without acknowledging violence. In my opinion, peace is where no one has to experience any type of violence. 


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