I have spent the last year transitioning from an introverted pen poet to a loud and proud slam poet.  It has been quite a journey: someone with stage fright trying to find a home on stage.  It has also been very rewarding to find power in my voice, a voice that I always believed was easily silenced.
I’ve been having a lot of fun performing at different venues and seeing how different audiences react to my poems about body positivity and asexuality, but I really do miss sharing my written poetry with people.
Throughout the past year, I’ve made a lot of weird poems that I never got the chance to share, mostly because they are really strange and I feel like I am the only one who will understand them.  (I also haven’t been sharing them because the majority of people I know don’t really like poetry in general.)
But here are a few really “eccentric” poems I have written.  I promise they are all short! Hopefully these pieces don’t perpetuate your idea of poetry being some foreign, nonsensical art.  If you ever get stuck, just remember that poetry is about what you, the reader, gets out of the poem.  It’s all about perspective.

on the side of the road:
i found myself on the side of the road:
a hitchhiker, thumb up–
searching for someone to save her,
tell her which way to go.
i’ve always let other people pick her up,
too afraid to guide anyone anywhere,
but she always seems to find her way back–
to the same spot,
as if waiting until i was ready for her.

Call Me a Spinster, But I am in Love:
freedom has romanced me
and i love it too much to give my heart to another.
oh freedom brings me to mountains,
takes me on adventures to touch waterfalls,
guides me onto the High Roller,
buys me plane tickets to summers in London,
and never gets mad when i don’t call back.

freedom puts me to sleep at 3am after long nights out,
packs me trail mix before long hikes,
kisses my forehead and tells me to have a safe trip.
it takes me stargazing on rooftops that i never knew existed.
i cry at night for all the beauty freedom has opened up inside of me:
the most supportive lover i’ve ever known,
no human can come close.

Flower Child:
I am a capybara with no integrity or sneakers.
I am a flower child born to farm parents who couldn’t stand the farm no more.
So my mother went to the suburbs.
She yells at me because I run on the concrete with no shoes.
I tell her not to worry because I’m usually rolling through grass.
She gets mad when I pick flowers to make wedding bouquets.
I tell her I can’t wait until I love myself enough to propose.
She says to stop playing in the sun or I’ll get sick.

My father went to the city.
And he always lost me in the schools of people.
I would let go of his hand and feel the waves wash over me.
It’s the closest I’ve got to an ocean.
I just wanted to feel like a mermaid.
I’ve always stood at the edge of the platform waiting for the subway.
I am the one they make all the announcements about.
I get too caught up in watching the rats survive.
A capybara is just a huge rat, right?
Maybe they can teach me something.

-Michelle Cherian