Warning: profanity
Get up Alice
Get up and wake up
At a reasonable time
Make up that bed
And ugly face
A face that has no place with such a wide mouth
Stop letting stuff just spurt out
Think about what you say
And think about it again
No wonder you don’t have many friends
Do you think that this speech is a cry for help
It’s a cry for attention
Pay attention, Alice
Pay attention to what I say
Pay attention to the way I want this done
Do it exactly how I want it done
Why do you never have fun?
Lighten up, Alice
Take a joke
You do not hold the world on your shoulders
You do not shoulder substantial burden
Learn and know that more people have it worse than you
Stop acting like everything is just so blue
Do it with a smile
And a happy one at that
Then again, every smile you’ve given looks like you just spat
Stop looking so pained
Stop being so drained
And for God’s sake, stop pretending that you’re so busy
Everything you do should be easy
But you can’t do that if you don’t get up
Get up
Get the fuck up
Wake the fuck up
You don’t have time to be lounging about
You were supposed to send three emails out
And I don’t want to see you pout
I set an alarm for six in the morning
That’s not an alarm, it’s a warning
If you don’t wake up now you’ll never wake up
And get up
And make your breakfast
And make yourself workout
And make up yourself
Because you don’t have time to be sad
You don’t have time to say how you feel
You don’t have time to call your feelings real
Because you need to get up
***
I apologize; this piece is angry and violent and probably one of the best things I’ve written. Heavily inspired by spoken word poet Maia Mayor’s “Perfect”, this poem draws from the element of internalized perfectionism, with a dash of content. I pieced it together in my mind through these last few months, but the entire thing came to fruition quite recently. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be shared. But if it was, and there are people like me who understand this poem to its core, be glad that you’re not alone.
Alice Griffin Writes 