You sit on the couch with a lamp on
Writing a poem
Bananas on the coffee table
Are ripening.

You’re creative
Unique
Expressing yourself authentically
Resolute
You observe carefully
Sensing the world around you
You contain depth and wisdom
A counter to a mainstream thought process
Seeing details and complexities
You feel everything deeply
You write to make sense
Of the world around you
The bananas are ripe.

You feel inadequate
You harden your shell
The bananas are overripe.
You stop writing poetry
The bananas rot.
Fruit flies swarm
And colonize
How you feel about who you’ve become
In comparison to who you were

But then an opportunity appears
To revisit the past
When the bananas were beginning to ripen
To write a poem
To your inner child
Where you’re reminded of the little girl
Who was unique
Creative
Resolute
Who wrote to make sense of her world
And remember
That the inner child hasn’t been lost
These qualities still exist within her

A vinegar and dish soap trap
The fruit flies give out
Creativity
Uniqueness
Determination
Are coaxed out
And she is once again writing a poem