We Are Born For Dependency

By: Laura Lee Cochran 2018

For twelve years of our lives, we are built for dependency.

And then suddenly we are expected to go out and be free.

We are kicked out by society,

And told to live a life free of anxiety.

But how can we?

When we have had no one to tell us how we should be.

There was no issued training,

Yet there was an endless loop of complaining.

We were simply asked to finish our homework,

And report to class like clockwork.

The bells told us when to eat,

And when we could use our feet.

There were only rules,

That sometimes felt like ridicules.

We were merely brains,

Linked together by chains.

And now we have been asked to leave,

And to no longer be naïve.

Being forced to grow into an adult,

At such a young age is an insult.

And if you read this closely,

You may see why we all feel so lonely.

Because we have been raised as cattle,

And have never been prepared for the future battle.

So when we reach the time to fight, we are stabbed with the knife,

Or our unprepared life.

Death’s Little One

By: Laura Lee Cochran 2018

Death awoke the sleeping child.

The child’s sparkling blue eyes looked up to the black figure, almost to speak.

“Hush little one,” he said, silencing her. “I am here to take you with me.”

The little girl rubbed her eyes and sat up from her bed utterly beguiled.

“Where are you taking me?” The sweet one asked.

“Somewhere that has no pain,” Death replied.

She removed her dreary covers and left her place of rest.

She then stood before Death, seeming as if her true self was masked.

Death could not be fooled for the child was, no doubt, curious.

But also afraid, or was she?

The girl lifted her head look up to the cloaked ghost,

And smiled a smile that left Death furious.

No being had ever gazed at Death with such a face.

To compel any expression other than a grimace was in fact unheard of.

But the child still smiled.

Acting as though there was nothing she couldn’t brace.

Death wondered why this girl was so peculiar.

He raised a brow and asked, “Sweet child, why do you smile in the face of Death himself?”

The girl grabbed Death’s claw-like hand, stared into his gaping black eyes, and said:

“My life has been full of pain for so long. I smile because you are my rescuer.”

The Man In Red

By: Laura Lee Cochran 2018

In a forest, once alive, but now dead,

Stood a Man covered head to toe in a cloak made of red.

The Man seemed quiet, almost too quiet, and also mysterious.

For he walked the forest with arrogance of his experience.

The Man in red glided down the forest’s path and approached a dark cave.

He then stormed right in as if he wasn’t fearful to end up in a grave.

After entering the cylinder tunnel, the man noticed that in there lay a crystal blue stone,

Propped up right, and displayed against a throne.

The man seized the stone with his massive hands,

And caressed it as if it he was waiting for its commands.

The stone grew brighter and blinded the young fellow,

So The Man in red dropped the stone with a loud bellow.

This very bellow awoke a beast, tall and sneer,

And caused The Man in red to be in utter fear.

The beast, tall and black with killer claws,

Picked up the man and threw him without cause.

The beast then replaced the stone to its spot,

And he returned to his place of thought.

All while the man lay in the mud,

Covered in red still, but now no longer in cloth, but of blood.