When I was a teenager...

When I was a teenager

I thought I'd know better

I thought I would grow into my awkwardness

I thought I'd impress

All the other people one day

And show I could learn to say

That I was loved and could love back 

Yet trauma told me I'd always lack

The heart and gold of the world around me

Stuck and sitting in all of my vulnerability 

Losing hope and by now

I thought I'd be better somehow

One day I'll learn

And yet I still yearn

For when I was a teenager

I didn't know I'd never know better.