"My Place"

Jeri
Berkshire Country Day School
Berkshire County, MA

My place
is not a room full of people
who are yelling and laughing and whining.

My place
is not the place
where the music blasts into your ears and vibrates through the floor.

My place
is not the place where people tell you what to wear
how to talk
who to be with.

My place
is not where
the walls press in and the strobe light flashes
light dark
light dark
distorting my vision,
people’s movements
robotic, dreamlike.

My place
is the forest.
Early in the morning when the soft wind
blows the snow off the branches
and glitters gold from the fingers of sunlight
in between the thin branches.

My place
is high in a tree, where the snow sits
a foot high on every branch.

My place
is where I don’t have to talk
so nothing I say has to be censored,
questioned, overruled
by the part of me
that cares.
My place
is not where I am being judged.

My place
is where I only have to feel good, not look it
or sound it.
This is
my place.