Akacia Robinson, Defining Moments

Akacia Robinson
DEFINING MOMENTS

I was nine years old
when I discovered death,
my brother broken
in our backyard,
suicide gun shots
echoing through air
as if they were at a distance.

I was nine years old
when I discovered
that mothers cry,
that sometimes parents
bury their children,
family become strangers,
and shameless fathers lie.

I was nine years old
when I discovered pain,
that you need not
step on a flame
to set yourself on fire,
that if you talk of dying
they send you to a shrink.

I was nine years old
when I discovered depression
take a pill they said
to cure the darkness in the brain
take a pill they said
to turn that frown
upside down.

I was nine years old
when I discovered funerals
and false sympathies,
that bullets fly and cut the brain
when pointed at the head,
I was nine years old and
living among the dead.

Bio: Akacia Robinson is Hickory, NC, poet and artist who runs her own handmade greeting card business. This is her first publication.