Pool Water

Here is a poem I wrote about middle child syndrome, which I assure you is real...

So I am standing
Pearched a top the diving board
Toes on the nose, 6 years old
Black suit, white dots, pink frill, waterwings
I am a virgin to the board and really scared
I close my eyes and I am soaring
Sailing, flying
Somewhat picturesque, like a pinwheel...

Unlike most I was blest with three brothers
and two equally talented tormentors called sisters
Jake the snake
2 years older non the wiser
Had chucked me off of the diving board to my almost certain doom
I will never forget the day he taught me to swim...

Junior high was more crippling,
Eating my way through twinkies and books
Limited friends and limited looks,
I was a chunk
My family never gave up on me though,
Wedgies, teasings, swirlies,
All signs of love
As if they knew the scars wouldn't last,
The fat kid days would somehow pass,
I have bear crawled my way through middle child syndrome
Banking on wit to quicken my pace
Barely deemed of human race,
So let me tell all you only, older, younger, syblings
I have been ignored at meals, blamed for spills and forgotten on birthdays

Survival of the fittest sucks when you are anything but

Yet, it took me so long to realize,
I attribute my strengths to my family character flaws
I have compassion for the underdogs
An eye for the over looked
and material for a plethora of poems

So here is a sonnet,
a theme
a tribute
To my family and yours
May the teasing be relentless,
The love never failing,
And for blood to always be thicker than pool water.