Cactus By: Megan Fincher

My poem covers the change I want to see in my community, and it highlights the recent event, Autism Awareness Day, that happened on April 3rd. 

Cactus

By: Megan Fincher

I am what they are not,

and I am not what they are enough.

Not pretty enough for my spikes to suffice as hugging leaves, 

My petals just don’t bloom, I’ve been waiting-

But it seems the punishment I get is waiting more,

When I stand still, I notice,

I will never be brought inside, 

Never be on the counter as a woman finishes her makeup,

Never be a place of celebration.

The holidays come and go for me, and they come and go around me,

I am never in the center of what is to be.

I wish to accept my differences and embrace these green, loud colors,

But they are not loud enough to mean something,

or loud enough to be on the cover of magazines

My name is ugly and stern as my appearance, 

While flower is in contrast,

I decorate in tiny slim blossoms, 

but they do not compare to the beauty in the time it will last

My thorns do not remove from me to form a beautiful Victorian Painting, 

My thorns are all I have, in all my ferocity.

Yet they love them for theirs, and hate the sting of mine.

Passion is only passion for the time it is liked,

When passion is not liked, it is only hate.