Does the world bribe you to betray yourself--
To try to make you fit inside a mold?
Does it try to tempt you with complacency--
To dominate you with its stranglehold?

Do you feel the pressure when it says to you
That what you see is really not the truth?
Has it often emphasized conformity
And stifled your ambitions since your youth?

Does it wear you down with its seductiveness,
Even though you see through all its charms?
Do its threats to curb originality
Manifest themselves as false alarms?

Have you found the courage to resist the ploys
And everything society might do
To make you who you aren't when you'd much prefer
To be and show the world the real you?

-by Bob B (3-2-22)