http://www.poetry.com/historical_users/273117-Abby%20%20%20Manatt/595260-Wasted-Away
Abby Manatt
We love because we must
were bitter because we cannot trust
We lie because we're ashamed,
there's so many problems in which we get blamed
We wear the clothes and play the part
not realizing the strain put on the heart.
We walk through life with a smile
letting no one know of the triumphs on the trials
We're swallowed by humanity
then give up claiming insanity
Joking and laughing and wondering why
staring in the mirror and starting to cry.
Realizing we've wasted it all away
wishing to do it all over, praying for one more day.
It seems we've committed suicide
by never getting off the crazy life ride.
We've done it the same as everyone before,
never taking a new path, or opening a new door.
Now life has passed us by,
and we look back and forever wonder why.
It's interesting to look back to the first poem I got published at the ripe old age of 13. Reading this often makes me wonder, why at age 13 did I feel so strongly about lie & everything it encompasses. I have always been someone with a deep sense of life and it's "meaning." My emotional pendulum has always swung very wide. While I am much wiser with age & now understand that the meaning of this life is for me to never understand or know, but rather live and figure out day by day, triumph after mistake, lesson after trial. I still look back at this very first poem & find myself in awe, as to how the poem I wrote as, basically a child, still rings so true to the beliefs I still hold dear. Many things have changed over the course of the years but somehow "I" have managed to still be me in, one way or another, for at least 20 years from the time I wrote it's poem. Always believe in who you are and what you believe, no matter what age you figure that out for yourself. Get off of that crazy life ride and do it different than those before. Make your mark, make your story, make your life YOURS and only yours. Make it one to be proud of and one to be remembered, not one that has to look back and ask why.
