Ezra Clingan’s “Growing Pains” (via TSR 1.0) is a poetic narrative that describes the difficulties in fitting in. The poem employs the metaphor of an orange tree, creating an insightful perspective of what it means to grow up feeling differently.
The piece discusses the speaker’s thoughts of transitioning. While Clingan’s work purely uses imagery evoking nature, the message hits the reader in a very straightforward manner. The ultimate message from Clingan’s work is that while the world may set you up to fit in a box, these conditions do not equal finite results. There are many other fruits on the vine!
We spoke to Clingan about a more in-depth look at the piece, and he had this to offer:
“Growing Pains" is actually an older piece that was originally written in the notes app on my phone. I wrote the poem on April 18th, 2023, in the second semester of my freshman year, as an outlet for frustration rather than for an assignment. Prior to submitting it to The Star Review, only two people had read it. It was an expression of my struggles and resentment over how certain members of my family were and had been reacting to my coming out as trans (ftm) and marked the first time that I not only wrote about my gender but also about my feelings about how it caused people to treat me. Depth wise, it really only scratched the surface of everything I was dealing with: alienation, hopelessness, and a sense of betrayal over how one of my very closest loved ones in particular rejected, questioned, or misinterpreted a truth that had lived rent free in my head and heart for years and had taken a lot of courage to be honest with them about. However, the poem is near and dear to my heart and signifies a very important milestone in my journey where I felt that I had enough clarity and pride in who I was to write earnestly about my identity and experiences as a trans guy.”
You can check out “Growing Pains” here in The Star Review.
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