not a problem you can solve

a poem using lyrics from "Hit the Wall" by Gracie Abrams

i’m a crack in the pavement
where the blooms grow in all directions.
is it resilience or brokenness?

i’m a slipknot,
easily unraveled,
undone.

do you like the flowers?
do you like my knotted patterns?
i can tell you’re having fun
trying to figure me out.

i’m a game to you, a riddle.
i’m interesting, fascinating, something
to ponder. you’re intrigued
by the way i move naturally
through the world. you’ve never met
anyone quite like me. but
i’m not a problem you can solve.

there is no answer to the mystery
you’ve found within me;
there is no mystery at all.
there is only a girl and her mind,
which is not a labyrinth,
just a road you haven’t walked down yet.

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I’m a bit afraid to share this one, since it’s so different from what I typically share. But here we go.

This song came out a few weeks ago and ever since, I have had the line “I’m not a problem you can solve” looping in my brain.

I love when words or phrases can mean very different things depending on the light you shed on them. In the song, the line means that she isn’t fixable. Her issues are heavy and unsolvable.

But for some reason, I keep hearing the line in a different way, that she is not a problem at all. She is not a riddle, or a puzzle, or a game. She is not something to be solved.

Sometimes, I have felt like people think I’m something to be figured out. And maybe I am more mysterious than I want to be, or maybe it’s the curse of being a writer or artist, but I often wonder why people think that I am a problem to solve instead of a person to get to know.

We are all unique and profoundly complex, but we are also all humans. We are more alike than we think.

Sincerely,

Caroline Cherry

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