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Apartment Complex
At four years old I lived in an apartment complex
Tan like sand on the outside, grungy and dry in the inside like the stale bread on . my kitchen counter
The first door inside was ours and the top of the stairs our neighbors
My mother worked midnight's and slept all day
Leaving my big sister to care for my young self
At four years old I learned what lock your doors and windows meant
My mother said it was to keep the monsters from coming in
But now I know that it really meant to pray that no one would break in and steal whatever belongings we possessed
At night the floors would creak as if someone was walking on them
The wind whispering through our windows, saying soft hymns
Every morning you woke up feeling like a winner, knowing that you survived the night
At six years old my mother met my now step father
He took us in and treated us as if we were his own
Today I'm fifteen and if someone were to ask me where I was from
My mouth would say that I lived in a perfect house with a perfect family
But my heart and brain would say that I'm still the little girl from the apartment
The little girl that locked the doors at night to stop the monsters from coming in

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What I want people to take from this poem is the fact that life does get better. I grew up in a bad apartment complex and was poor. My mom worked all the time and I barely ever saw her. Now I live in a beautiful house and my mom doesn't work as much anymore. My step dad truly saved us and I'm not sure where we would be without him.