Teenage Hysteria​

Issue 6

Blasting Green Day in my speakers
of my white Honda Civic.
Like a car crash waiting to happen,
driving my problems away.
 
Hopes of blasting mistakes
out of my life: ex-boyfriend, narcissistic mother,
separated parents, ex-best friend.
Bitter memories, a better goodbye.
Mistakes, like a bobble head.
I guess I learned from it all.
 
Can you hear my teenage
years? Blasting in the lyrics.
Adults say the pain isn’t real, not real.
Pain from isolation, pain from heartbreak
Pain from silence. I’m suffocating.
 
It’s all fucked up,
yet stars will align - shine again.
Music above the deafening noise,
windows down,
I drown.

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VICTORIA JAMES is a high school teacher. She was awarded a MS in Secondary Education and a MA in Literature from Pittsburg State University. Her fiction appears in Choeofpleirn’s Spring 2023 Magazine and her poetry appears in Cow Creek Review’s 2023 collection.

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