All Apart

Play the part of You

And learn it well

Step out for the first time

Leaving comfort behind

Here: your peers; your newest of fears

And you are to fall in line

Make peace with the unfamiliar

Its form, set in stone

Hurried into a sense of Self

Rules unwritten, norms unspoken

Mores to remain unbroken

You, who must bend to its folly

Unallowed to break

Encouraged to flourish then punished all the same

All that you teach is all that you betray

No face to save when there's no face to lose

Which side of your mouth can I trust?

How dare you preach

That which you cannot practice?

You are not the same, are you?

To be deemed Other than

Should free you of the heavy burden

Of living a life you weren't to live

Fighting a fight you weren't to win

But alas, I still feel the weight

So I retreat in search of solid ground

In hope a haven forms about me

With each of my patterns stitched on every flag

Each bridge burned, every arrow drawn

I am all apart

I abstain

I am recluse