Walk in a file, they said,
In a line that is straight
What is straight, I wondered
But followed, dismayed

I didn’t know better then,
But do I today?
Do I still listen to my own voice?
Or those that lead astray?

Wear this and that, speak no more and less
Say this, say that, if you want a morsel of respect
Where’s the key to the lock that you have sealed my lips with?
Where is the me I knew of had once existed?

Was I really ever me? the thought confounds
A ‘person’, a ‘human’ with freedom abound?
Or was I always a shadow lurking around?
Merely the silhouette of those who buried me in the ground?

Sit here, stand here, walk this way and obey
You made me, carved me, broke me you say?
Commands are simple, up, down, turn around please, now walk away
Disappear into nothingness; ‘hide your hideousness’, they bray

For ages; years, months and days I followed
My pride, my being, myself you swallowed
I believed you and shrouded my ugliness forever
Carrying with contempt the crippled soul that you, in jest, hollowed.

No more, I cried, no more will I
No more will I not lift my eye
No more will I walk in a file
For my straight and yours can never be aligned