Kindness? Or People Pleasing?
The poem “Kindness? Or People Pleasing?” highlights how the line between kindness and people-pleasing blurs for both parties— the pleaser and the pleased. Dom explores how the blur affects both from the pleaser’s perspective.
Yes.
- Yes, I’ll take on your work and mine.
- Sure, you’ll never do the same. 🙂
- Yes, I’ll cover your tail and mine.
- Sure, you never do the same. 🙂
Sure.
- Sure, I’ll carry your trauma and mine
- Yes, you’ll never do the same.
- Sure, I’ll put your needs before mine :/
- Yes, you never do the same.
Maybe
- Maybe you’ll acknowledge pains –
- Yours and mine
- Maybe I’ll prioritize healing wounds –
- Solely mine 🙂
Yes.
- Yes, you’ll learn consideration 🙂
- For all 🙂
- Yes, I’ll learn forgiveness 🙂
- For myself 🙂
Process
Dom began the process on the bus, following a tiresome double shift at work. Seeking a safe avenue to vent, he chose creative nonfiction poetry for its somewhat guideless structure to mirror his emotions. Like the anxious but rushed thought process many people pleasers go through before agreeing, Dom decided on bullet points. He finalized his draft using punctuation to depict people’s typical emotions in similar positions.
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Dom Dawes
Dom Dawes is a diligent sophomore at Hunter College who has been writing for the past six years. Dom began writing enemies-to-friends short stores on Wattpad. He has mostly focused on fiction, and has also experimented with poetry and creative nonfiction. He looks forward to branching out into writing more nonfiction this year. He is preparing for a career in writing and publishing, and is seeking an editorial internship now. Dom is an animal lover, and has a particular love of cats because they are very clever and require us to earn their affection.
