“twelve by Hannah Beaucamp

I was looking through my papers

Cleaning out my room so my brother can move in

Cuz i have the bigger room but i don't need it at college

And in the stacks i had,

I found one particular piece of paper

It was from court

A paper to get 12 dollars

For showing up and testifying

A second time

And i got to thinking

Is this what I am worth?

Twelve US dollars

All the trouble I went through and I got twelve dollars?

How could that be

I sat there

And i laid there

And i told no one

Scared that he would get in trouble and our family would split

Except

He didn't get in trouble

He gets to be free

He roams the streets

Flying like a bird

While i'm trapped in a cage

A cage that costs twelve dollars

And i'm stuck

I can't get out

It's hard to breathe

And the door has a faulty lock

So maybe i can get out

But i can't push hard enough

I can’t get it to go far enough to open

So i climb back in

And i lay down

In my bed of twelve dollars

Hannah Beaucamp is a student in LSA studying English on a creative writing track. They are passionate about writing poetry that shows a narrative often left unspoken.

Artist’s Statement: “This poem didn’t start as a poem. I was just angry at everything and had to get my feelings out and this is the way they landed on the page.”