Why is it that I feel so blue?
I am trying my hardest,
thinking of others,
And still it’s like
I just can’t pass a green light,
ZOOM.
Why do I feel so far from my daughter?
I call her everyday,
I go over to her home and play,
Damn, yes, these circumstances
make me need to pray.
I am here
living with other people,
They say they like me,
saying it idle.
Then why is it
that when I turn my back,
The people around me
speak about others,
and lack.
I once heard
that if I can count
the number of friends
on one hand,
I am a lucky woman
amongst the land.
I now know
this to be true,
For if I can count
one friend,
I will not turn blue.
The women I live with
curse and shout,
Moving amongst each other,
as if they belong with cows.
They eat so fast,
they beg each other,
Thinking nicely of each other,
well whatever of their mother?
So how can I
be happy living here?
How do you make friends
with people
that stop and stare?
Do I simply forgive
the shoutings
of the days?
For I will not
accommodate
and swear everyday.
We are all here
to learn better ways.
We come from different places
and define better days,
differently.
I will not tell others
how to speak
and how to teach.
Yet I will learn from others
based on what to do
and what not to do,
when watching others
behave differently.
Analysis of the Poem
The author is sad at the beginning of the poem, feeling she is in a state of being where she tries her hardest in life yet is still unable to make herself happy.
In addition, the people that she lives with are people she is unable to befriend due to the people’s inability to say nice things about the people in the house.
The author notes it is hard to find friends in life, and this is accurately noted in the poem, in the fourth verse. She continues in the poem giving her critique of the women she lives with by observing their demeanor, and it is accurately portrayed in the poem, in the fifth verse.
The author questions how she is supposed to learn within her atmosphere in the sixth verse.
Moving forward, and most importantly, the author attempts to portray that she will learn from everyone equally by observing others then deciphering what to do and what not to do.
Other works by the same author
ShareHow to Learn is another Dana Sheehy’s poem of disillusionment underscoring the view that poetry can do some philosophy too.
PROFAGE
