One of my nieces posted the below meme on her Facebook wall, and as it struck a chord in me, I immediately shared it on my own wall.

It reminded me of my own life, especially when I was younger.

In hindsight, I saw myself as the proverbial ugly duckling. A pipsqueak. When I was born (late), was undersized, and had to spend several days in an incubator. In terms of natural selection, if I had been born in the wild, would have been considered the runt of the litter, and probably not survived.

As I got older, I became the target of bullies, but gradually learned to fight back and defend myself, and as the years progressed, developed a fierce sense of survival, and when in my late teens, thanks to rubbing elbows with the wrong side of the law, I saw my small size as justification for using a baseball bat or some other blunt or sharp object to protect myself, though thankfully, never came to fruition...nor would I want it to. I have no desire to spend the rest of my life in prison. A short stint in the county zoo (as I like to call it) as a young man, reinforced that determination.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, I like to think I had a head full of bad wiring. Lots of issues to be worked out in my mind and soul, not the least of which was ADHD, which remained undiagnosed into adulthood. I was also incredibly shy, especially when it came to girls, but there were angels at strategic points along the way, who helped me to gradually break out of that shyness. The real breakthrough however wouldn’t arrive until I was 15 years old.

Long before I started writing poetry, I noticed that despite my shortcomings, I had a gift for words, and could pretty well talk my way into or out of any situation.

In all my years, lost wandering aimlessly in the proverbial woods, I hurt people, pissed others off. For that I am truly sorry, and where possible, have tried to make amends with those I share bad blood.


© 2021






560 hits as of March 2024

03/11/2021

Posted on 03/11/2021
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti