High School Contest First Place Winner in Poetry: “Don’t Tell Me”

By Sa’Raye Wynder-Burs

Don’t tell me the world doesn’t accept me,

Those that love me keep me warm

In a bed full of blankets

With the hope that i’ll endure

Don’t tell me my dreams can’t reach you,

I have a pen to write them down

Those to break my words

As I string them together

Don’t tell me I lack your passion

I have a heart full of forest fires

That no winds of self doubt

No droplets of your criticism can put out

Don’t tell me I posses no vision

I see stars from a thousand skies

The someone wrote for those binds

To unchain the mind and be free

Don’t tell me I won’t survive

Because I am brave enough to fight

Strength from those in the corners of fantasy

Hope in  those that live in my mind

Don’t tell me that you know me best

When I know every seam of my heart

How ugly it’s scars can be

That I lack what you have

I can’t hold all your worries,

With a mind full of my own

I can’t be all you were not,

While I am becoming who I am

So don’t tell me these things, don’t tell me

Don’t tell me anything at all

Sa’Raye Wynder-Burs is a student at Woodbridge Senior High School.