From the tender age of twelve

I've found refuge in a bookshelf

In a story I would delve,

To be totally myself.


From pride to prejudice

All I found was bliss,

That I forgot all the facades

Of their judgemental shades.



I was the "different" kid

In the crowd I hid,

Escaping the reality in fiction

I lived in the story-depiction.


I was a misfit

For I was built

Of

A soul so shattered

A heart bitterly battered

Thoughts totally tattered

Words wisely clattered;


Tagged as the "******"

I faked bravado

And each day

Until I found my way

And be completely okay

Did I say-

"I am me

and me being me

makes me happy

putting this into poetry

is my way of therapy,

for I choose to be free

in all my oddity,

for I choose to be free

in all my oddity"