i used to think

national poetry writing month, day 10

i used to think,
i had the answer to everything…

just kidding.
this isn’t a britney spears song,

but i did used to think i knew more than i actually did
or do.

peculiarly pretending i had an ‘open mind’
when really i definitely—and defiantly—dared to dream
dared to believe
that i had the only answer.

“that’s just what it means
to be a tormented teenager,” you say
(an especially stubborn one at that,) i think.

but i used to think
that my answers were the answers,
and open to learning just meant open to expanding my beliefs
appreciating what confirmed my conscious convictions.

and leaving no room for anything else

i still think
i am still convicted
but i at least try to be a little more open—if i have learned anything
in my life,
it’s that there’s always something i don’t know waiting behind a corner.