What's A Teenager? (Mommy Dearest) Poem by Elizabeth Sheaffer

I'm not on drugs, don't smoke or drink,
Or stay out partying all night.
I appear to be this amazing kid,
But I can't do anything right.
I try and try, but every time,
I fail within your sight.
I guess that I'm much better off now;
I don't have to live in fright.
But I don't want to go on living here
If I can't do anything right.
If I told you this you'd mock me,
Say I'm making up this plight.
You feel that I'm just whining,
That my trials are only slight.
I wish that I could let you feel
What I feel, for just one night.
Maybe then you'd be able to understand,
Yourself having felt the blight.
Maybe then we'd have a chance
To make everything alright.
But until you understand my pain,
All we'll do is fight.
And I'll be left alone again
To cry to sleep at night.