I stand in the shadow of giants <br />and I measure my height against them. <br />I am constantly looking for the edge of the sky <br />that I might find hidden in a sliver of <br />empty space between these stone towers. <br /> <br />I cannot fly, nor can I grow any further. <br />As I try to enlarge, the bulk only <br />sags me to the ground, as I take on <br />far too many burdens than I can carry. <br />Neither talent nor opportunity will <br />give me air to rise me up for <br />I cannot breathe in this clustered space, <br />nor do I have the vacuum lungs <br />to compete for oxygen with the titans. <br /> <br />I am told that, beneath the sky, <br />there is still life to be loved, that <br />I should look down beneath my feet <br />and stare at the flowers struggling to grow, <br />and the weeds that are so strong and <br />satisfied with their single-minded lives. <br />I am sometimes told I should join them, but <br />my sky-scraping friends would surely <br />mock me. I do not know how to shrink anyway. <br />I would forever be a weed too tall and stiff, <br />not pliable or vigorous enough. <br /> <br />I don't know how to be a stone giant, <br />I cannot be a weed. I wish I could be a flower, <br />so that even if I cannot touch the sky, <br />the earth will love me enough to nurture me into <br />something beautiful and adored. But <br />I do not have the temperament or the sweetness. <br /> <br />I feel like an unformed mound of <br />hard but weak flesh. Instead of holding me up <br />so I may reach higher, it only hangs around me. <br />I do not know where to go. <br />The earth rejects me, <br />the sky is beyond me. <br />Where does a weed <br />who worked too hard to be a giant live?<br /><br />Yiling Ding<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/giants-playground/
