Love Poem

 By Season Kelly

Someone more fortunate than me once told me that thrift stores are cute
I always wondered what could have been cute about it, personally

They told me to just pay in full
And I always wondered who handled their expenses

They told me to just tough it out, you’ll make it back later
And all I could do was wonder

They looked at me and told me
I’m poor too we’re in the same boat
They said from their pristine suburban homes and shiny leather boots

But if I could be so selfish…
I have yet to meet many who know the inherent beauty of comfortability within your class

They do not know the supple touches of your mother as she flows through the thrift store
The feeling of finding the jeans that fit among the tattered hand-me-downs

I’ve heard about the sadness and seen the pity of my peers
And only can picture me and my siblings and my mom trotting the sidewalks
Humming about love as I cling onto my mother’s hanging arm

Looking to my left at the decrepit buildings with kids screaming inside
To my right seeing the cracked roads littered with potholes
and at the end a grill bellowing with people sitting around belly laughing til their stomachs turn
And I know no pity could shelve this love

I know we are anything but sad
We are but people who have learned to live

I remember the days out of my car
The days without water
The days without food
The days without toys
The days without clothes
The days without comfortability
But I have never remembered a day without happiness

The hope in every aisle of the run-down dollar general
The peace of nothing above twenty dollars

Hand-me-down clothes hugging you gently
Tactics to be engraved into the rock that sits upon my soul
Rock so weathered the text has seeped into my being
And it’s anything but sad
I’ve never seen people happier than when they are like me



Season Kelly lives in Tennessee, where she is a student at Tennessee Tech University studying biology. She has always loved writing and creating for as long as she can remember. If she isn’t studying for exams, then she’s writing stories or drawing. It was always how she used her free time. She had never tried to show off her own work, choosing to keep the little world she’s made to herself. She’s very proud of her work and has poured countless amounts of love into what she creates and is ready to show the world.