Once there was a girl

With feet just like a doll.

She had such tiny feet

She couldn’t walk at all.

She loved the outside world,

She admired from her seat.

But this poor young girl

Never felt the grass on her feet.

Her parents tried their best

To soothe her wanderlust

But she wanted to walk so badly

She felt she might combust.

The doctors said it was hopeless

Which saddened her to no end

But then she met a girl like her

Who thought small feet were a trend

One girl wanted to stay inside all day

The other wanted to run

One girl wanted to laugh and play

The other was content to sit in the sun

These girls were opposites at heart

They wanted opposite things

But they were bonded by their feet

And together they felt like kings

Like lovers in a 3-legged race

They taught themselves to walk

And one girl got to wander

While the other got to talk.

And throughout all of this time

They fought impossible chances

And then these two girls

Danced impossible dances

After years and years

The girls became the closest friends

They overcame their greatest fears

And you know how the story ends.

❤️

They curse at you for fighting

Shut up and sit down

So that’s what I did

I shut up and I sat down

But what good did it do me?

All it gave me was a few scars

And all it gave me was the ability to hide

Not like I needed that

I am a master of hiding.

Slipping away unnoticed.

They curse at you for fighting

So the only thing I fight is my own satisfaction

Trapped in an endless cycle of fear and blame

Now all I feel is anger.

Rice Krispy cereal scattered across the floor

I step on it.

Crunch.

It doesn’t make the fun sounds I remember as a child.

I remember Snap Crackle Pop.

Those cartoon characters who used to cheer me up

When I was alone.

That cereal was only good for the square marshmallow treats.

I had to dump a gallon of sugar for it to taste good.

Now I avoid sugar like the plague.

Do I need to?

No. I’m still a kid.

But all I can do is stare at the scale in dismay

I miss Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

My childhood friends.

They’re gone now.

All that’s left is the scatters of shattered cereal.

Twenty twenty is coming.

A new decade.

They don’t snap, crackle, or pop anymore.

They just crunch.

Christmas, the

Open wound

Markets

Manage money

Every

Retail store

Can't

Identify

A

Loss

In

Sales

Markets live on lies.

You walked into school,

Your red hair a fire,

But to my own surprise,

That’s not what I first saw.

No, I saw that dress.

The long blue one.

It was the color of the sky.

And then I noticed the gleam in your eye.

I knew.

What did I know?

I’ve since forgotten.

It’s sunk into my brain.

But whatever it was I know

That I’ll remember it someday.

When it matters.

Alone I spend my days,

With an encumbrance in my hand,

Loneliness overwhelms my ways,

As empty as a solitary strand.

But forever I shall be my own,

On desolate meadows I shall prance,

I shall touch the stars all alone,

And in the firmament, I shall dance.

Leisurely I shall ascent tall mountains,

Always meeting disparaging eyes,

And float in my warm, exultant fountains,

And in these profound waters, I shall fly.

Those Beasts lark at my visions,

Constantly doubting my dreams,

I shall fight these incisions,

Conquering all that conquers me.

They will look, they will laugh,

But one day they will see,

That I can tear entire peaks apart,

And these dreams, they will believe.

But forever I shall be my own,

On desolate meadows I shall prance,

I shall touch the stars all alone,

And in the firmament, I only shall dance.

I've got

Coal in my stockings.

Santa never looked at my Christmas list

because I've been a bad boy.

But the joke's on him.

All I asked for

was coal.

I know I've been bad,

I've never expected anything from anyone.

So I asked Santa for some coal,

Coal to keep me warm in the frigid four walls of my abusive household.

Coal to burn the ashes of the people I want to leave behind.

Coal to set the world on fire.

I got my wish.

When I was in fifth grade I, along with a few friends, were very much into the world of alternate realities, past lives, and different dimensions. I had an entire past life, full of love, friendship, tragedy, and all the aspects of real life now. I built an entire world with their help, including a runic alphabet, profiles on the traditions of many of the other dimensions, and characters. I recorded it all in a notebook along with my age, the age of my past lives and my current life combined. This notebook holds the entirety of the alternate universe I made with my friends. Along with this complex universe, we devised a "time paradox." This time paradox stated that history would go it's course until reaching a turning point, where from then history would go in reverse. Different names, different groups of people, but same underlying principles behind it. None of us ever fully established when the turning point would occur, but it was sometime in the early 2020s. Since 2020 is approaching, and this challenge popped up, I wonder..

could fifth grade me have been right?

If so, prepare yourselves.

We're going to get to relive the best (and the worst) parts of history.

How can you really hurt a man? Society will have you believe he has the world at his fingertips. If you want to wreck a man and completely take away his sense of self, you must make him believe he has no "self." A man is no longer a man when he doesn't see himself as worthy or equal to his brothers. A man loses his humanity when that which he holds dear is left to rot and die.

You must take what he holds secret and expose it.

Men have mastered the art of appearing confident and secure when their world is havoc within. You can break this confidence with a well-timed comment or complaint. You can shatter their walls by finding the one place they are insecure then exposing it to the world, showing their true face. And the world will reject their true selves. The world will tear down their value and sense of self. You can't protect that which is thrown to the wolves. If you want to hurt a man, expose him for the liar and fraud that he is, then he will torture himself.