Figure me out!: Devyn Pleasants

unpublished poem by a youth from Larkin Street Youth Services
*typos and capitalization are [sic]

12/27/10

Figure me out!
It's not that hard
To remove the bandages
covering those scars

Now ask about!
Even if it's not clear
Where they came from
And why they're still here

Get into my head!
You know you want to
so don't play around
Or I will taunt you

Don't hesitate!
Can't you see?
I want you to understand
What I really need

Don't fight the urge!
I won't mind
The questions you ask
Or the answers you'll find

Break the skin!
Keep probing till you get
What you're looking for
Or til I forget

Give a push!
Don't stop in your tracks
You're on a roll
So don't look back

Open my mouth!
If it won't budge
To find out how
In the past I've loved

Follow me!
And I'll show you a way
To my darkest room
Down decaying hallways

Push me harder!
If I try to resist
When you ask me questions
That just get me pissed

Don't leave me alone!
'Cause you'll never hear
How I came so close
To living in fear

Rape my seanses!
I will oblige
Now it's up to you
To figure out why

Some People Say I Have a Gift: Devyn Pleasants

unpublished poem by a youth from Larkin Street Youth Services
*typos and capitalization are [sic]

Some people say I have a gift
that makes them sit down in front of me
To listen intently to my poetry
In order to know the whole of me
the chance to look at me critically
Or to find a rhyming soliloquy
Will not come like this
But, however, they persist

In time they find
My soul to exist
As thoughts and ideas
I put on a list

Then hide away in a secret place
Away from even God's grace
I take it out when no one's around
And use it to write my feelings down

Sometimes it's gone, at times too scared
To let me keep exposing the mind's affairs

But if I stop writing it yells at me
It gets angry with me and tells me to leave
And then I'm left with an undone piece
No chance to finally release

Never asking why it screamed at me
Do I write of its insecurities?
That's probably why it's mean to me
For revealing every impurity

But alas with efforts
I've finished my poem
And what has it shown
Has it shown that unkown

Deep, dark hidden space
Hid from even God's grace
Hid forever, hidden from time
Hid where the stars try not to shine

Hidden even as the planets shift
In my heart
Is this poetic gift

I am a sad poet: Devyn Pleasants

unpublished poem by a youth from Larkin Street Youth Services
*typos and capitalization are [sic]

"I am a sad poet
My words are bleeding
Who cares, you poets
Are forever teething

I am sad in here
You only need one eye to see
Tears are found here
And the edge is steep

I have cried and hoped
Death would be release
But that is far from
The rest I need

And each time it ends
In a lover's bout
Adds scars visible
To you, no doubt

But are invisible to me
Are shielded and concealed
Like wounded soldiers minds
Are falsely healed