About Me

Hi, I'm Harper Lee Simmons. It's pronounced Har-peh, because my dad's from the south. He's a foreign service agent from the US; my mom's a professor from Morocco. I grew up dividing my time between Rabat, Casablanca, and the countryside, with occasional trips to France. (I speak Arabic, French, and, yes, English.) I was born in Morocco but spent my first year or two in the States to get some fancy medical treatments. Mom and I and my brother and sister usually hang out at home while Dad's away on business. I have a younger brother, Will, and a younger sister, Charlotte. Dad named us all after his "heroes of literature": Nelle Harper Lee, William Shakespeare, and Charlotte Bronte. Mom and us kids are Muslim and Dad's a Baptist. He met my mother on an assignment and hasn't been able to get his heart away from Morocco since. Now I'm in the States attending a boarding school. I got detained after a fifty-state whirlwind tour, probably because of my religion. Living at "home" has been difficult to adjust to, but I'm getting there. With some help from my wonderful teacher and new friends, my United States citizenship has become something tangible. Oh, and I'm a poet. Yeah, I might not be your typical American Girl... but I think that's something I can live with.

06 December 2008

it's coming back

remember how i was perfectly okay a few weeks ago?
there was this thing about how
somehow things are better now
like how when i go back
they stay exactly the same
except everything is legal
(wow that sounds horrible.)
and we seem to actually have developed
a form of communication.

i hate how songs bring everything back to you
i hate how i can go look up something
and miss the very part of you that i totally hated,
just miss the reason to complain.
i hate how jealous i am of everyone still there
even though i know for sure i need to be here.

i hate that i want to tell you first
or i need to get your opinion
but one of us is busy.
i hate how i'm not allowed to cry anymore
because i'm not in "the room".
i hate how i'm crying now.

"but the only thing i really miss is being the first one you see
when morning opens up the skies
you see me when daylight opens up your eyes."