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Best Poems From
AMANDA SAVELEY
(December 29,1987)
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85.
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Who Makes You?
When I got another girl scout badge,
An academic award,
A certificate of some kind,
You were there, smiling,
Like I'd done something worth doing
For you sat through the endless line of programs,
The initiation ceremonies,
The honor dinners and ceremonies,
Graduation,
Smiling and crying,
As if I'd saved the world or something
You were always there for me,
No matter what,
And when I'd see the other people
Who weren't so lucky
I'd feel a twinge of guilt for them
Wishing there was something I could do for them
To bring back that person
Or at least, make them care...
But sitting at a table in a university
With others I've met along the way
Surrounded by my new life
That somehow doesn't include you
I feel lost
Looking for your smiling face
And I wonder if maybe it means less without you
That you were the one that made it all worth it
That I really did it for you all along
And just don't know how to
Stop.
Amanda Saveley
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86.
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Who Says You Can't Teach 'Em...
Oh sir, why do you so repeat yourself?
Plan you to be clever?
I warn you against such actions,
For words lose value when played like a broken record.
People tire of monotony;
So teach yourself some new tricks, old dog,
Lest ye be thrown out into the cold.
Amanda Saveley
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87.
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You're Crashing
Sad incident, tragic fate,
You openeth the teary gate
You let loose stories of senseless hate
Before closing again
But how many will remember you
How many will get the message true
Or will they go corrupt you too
To meet their precious ends
And everyone's looking for relief
United States versus disbelief
Mothers cast tears on both sides of the aisle
Clear your throat and face the world
The verdict falls like bachelors for bad luck girls
Only breathing with the aid of denial.
Because people forget all that with time
Yes, each and every senseless crime
Is gone and transformed on a dime
And used for other means
We let it be tacked to a cause
To leave exposed our social flaws
To attack one another with sharpened claws
More faux-revolution scenes
And everyone's looking for relief
A bidding war for an old flame's grief
The cause, the kid, the course, the charm, and the curse
Not a word that could make you comprehend
Too well dressed for the witness stand
The press prays for whichever headline's worse
Yes, you may think I'm critical
Maybe a little cynical
But I recognize an insane cycle
Of neverending grief
In which we turn against our friends
Family bonds break and never mend
A nation split that could not bend
A nation without reprieve...
You're a canary, I'm a coal mine
Cause sorrow is just all the rage
Take one for the team
You all know what I mean
So say you now, who ridicule
Oh do you follow Golden Rule?
Or do you use it as a tool
Like other precious things?
Do you poison it with greed
And use it for what you do need
You break the rules you cannot heed
But reject the pain it brings
Do you remember the way I held your hand?
Under the lamp post and ran home
This way so many times
I could close my eyes
If we continue on this course
Of massive self-destructive force
We'll create things we can't enforce
And then we will implode
So take whatever you can from this
Pay attention, don't dismiss
We can no longer live in ignorant bliss
Or our lives will all corrode
The truth hurts worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you
Amanda Saveley
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88.
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}{
Hello, Mother.
I see you there.
You dont think I do,
But I do.
In every waking minute
Of every single day,
I see you.
Youre very well-hidden,
I give you that much.
So much so that even I
Thought I had escaped from you.
Every day that passed,
I felt the distance between us
Increasing
Exponentially
Every single time I did something
To further my own good,
I felt the distance grow.
But it was all a lie
Even to me-
When I see you now
Its impossible to deny.
Youve always been there,
Hiding
Just beyond my minds eye.
And I see you now.
Clear as day.
But youre not really here.
Its just my reflection.
Amanda Saveley
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