Light Filters In: Poems

by Caroline Kaufman

there is nothing more powerful than a girl with a pen who is brave enough to use it.

I’ve spent so much time trying to become who I should be that I lost myself along the way.

it’s far too painful, once at dusk, to think back on the dawn.

all my life has been a script and you wrote every page.

all you are is a blank paper with bits of plagiarized pieces bandaging broken margins.

and my heart is not a crystal drum; it will always be a weapon more than anything.

I carry a first-aid kit wherever I go, forgetting that I need to heal.

and I know I shouldn’t rely on love from other people. but if someone else can love me, that means it’s possible for me to do it as well.

this is where I surrender, or this is where I finally make peace with myself.

if you could carry all the stars in the palm of your hand, they wouldn’t be half as breathtaking.

you can’t root yourself in the ground, hoping the world will grow around you. you were made to do more than hide in the shadows of another’s leaves.

be grateful that time will heal the wounds but leave the scars.