#societalpressure
Pieces of me
F l o a t i n g
S
i
n
k
i
n
g
Hiding below the surface
Keeping them submerged takes effort
Drains energy
Makes the pieces feel like a secret
wrong
shameful
What if
I lose them
Buried deep
Out of sight
Out of mind
Never to be seen again
The fear seems foolish sometimes
but terrifyingly real
To be always incomplete
Never able
To put the pieces back together
What if my self didn’t need to fragment
For others’ comfort
Their easy understanding
And acceptance
Wholeness is hard to imagine
Especially for the pieces that started to s
u
b
m
e
r
g
e
before memory began
What a wonderful dream though
To always have access to all of your parts and pieces
To in fact not have pieces
To just be
One person
Complete
And whole
Nov 5, 2021
Nov 5, 2021 at 5:59 PM UTC
They arrive soft,
curved like question marks,
hands clutching wonder,
eyes wide as open windows.
But Society arrives too—
arms heavy with blueprints,
breath reeking with should and must.
"Here," they say,
their voices not unkind,
just certain.
"This is the shape you become."
They point to the rigid mold:
The angles of achievement,
the cold lines of expectation,
the polished surface of conformity.
"Fit," they murmur.
"Fit is safety. Fit is success."
Small hands tremble,
pushing clay not theirs.
Fingers; meant for mud pies and starlight
now scrape against prescribed edges.
Tears fall,
not of sadness first,
but of effort—
of trying to force a circle into a square hole.
The mold is heavy.
It carves away laughter,
flattens curiosity—
demands stillness where wings should beat.
Why?
The unspoken cry hangs in the air,
a fragile bubble.
Why must I be this shape?
You who carved it—
can you even bear its weight yourselves?
The answer is silence—or worse,
a sigh disguised as wisdom:
"It's just how it's done, child."
So the soft clay hardens,
fractured from straining.
The question mark snaps straight.
The open window shutters close.
And Society nods,
admiring the fractured replica.
Another child shaped,
another soul splintered,
another brick laid
in the wall of the
Status Quo—
Mar 27
Mar 27, 2026 at 6:48 AM UTC