My Lyft Driver Says You Shouldn’t Call Your Children Smart

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& I guess I understand what it means to be named

many things but most often after the worst thing

you survived & I guess humility got a lot

of guys laid in college for being mysterious & I

guess there’s something to be said to be loved for

the downswing and not just the seduction

of your beveled edge & I guess the only difference

between flowers being thrown at your feet or being

thrown on your grave is what you

are expected to do next.

Here is what I know about my unmaking:

My ACT score was higher than the age

the smartest kid I grew up with ever made it

to. I once spent a night breaking windows

and the moonlight rinsed through them

because what would I do in college anyway?

I was once a beautiful bouquet of new stalks,

but nobody told us what it takes to bloom.

So many of us were pulled up, root and all.

You don’t wait for something to flower if you were

only taught what the ground will take.