growing pains
growing pains, my sixteenth chapbook, was written during 2026 March 8-11; it is 17 pages long, excluding the front cover. I consider it my finest work to date.
The inspiration for growing pains comes from the final track on Erykah Badu’s 2000 album Mama’s Gun, called “Green Eyes”; the song is split into three parts, like growing pains. The song deals with Badu’s recovery from a breakup. The first part is denial; the second part is insecurity; and the third part is a slow but uncertain recovery.
The idea for the title comes from the last two lines of the song:
I know our love will never be the same
But I can’t stand these growin’ pains
I wrote growing pains out of order; III first (completed 2026 March 8, c. 19:45), I second (completed 2026 March 10, 18:02, and proofread for a few minutes afterward), and II last (completed 2026 March 11, 15:30). I originally intended it to be my final chapbook written while in my fourteenth year of life, but couldn’t stop writing and completed recantations about three and a half hours after finishing II.
The conceit for the chapbook’s parts is roughly:
Each part has a reference to the corresponding part in “Green Eyes”, namely:
I:
Poemtext: “Do you / eat / your vegetables?”
Song: “My eyes are green / ‘Cause I eat a lot of vegetables / It don’t have nothing to do / With your new friend”
II:
Poemtext: “I see that / you feel / sad / and hurt inside.”
Song: “Ooh oh ooh / Never knew that love could hurt like this / Never thought I would but I got this / Makes me feel so sad and hurt inside / Feel embarrassed so I want to hide”
III:
Poemtext: “tes yeux // sont verts / tu ne // cant stand these”
Song: “I know our love will never be the same /But I can't stand these growin’ pains”
The number of interlocutors also decreases with each part: I has three, II has two, and III has one.