Remember Who You Are

When they told you
who you had to be
you believed them.
You acquiesced
without knowing better
without reference or investigation
because you knew nothing else
and you trusted.

When they told you
who you had to be
you complied ——
Comported yourself
to the expected behaviors.
Contorted your body
to fit into
the corsets of expectations.
Conformed your mind
to think the thoughts
they fed you
to believe what
they told you was truth.

But it wasn’t truth.
And now they know.

When they told you
who you had to be
they were repeating lies
that they had been told
lies they believed
when they were younger.

When they told you
who you had to be
they believed it themselves.

And so you’ve been living
in a distorted mind
and contorted body,
never noticing
the distortion because
it’s all you’ve ever known.

When everything around you
is crooked
you can’t see
your own distortion

Until you step outside the bubble
and see a world beyond
the world described to you
in the stories you were told.

Suddenly you realize.
Suddenly you know.
Everything you were told
is a lie.

A lie built on lies.

When they told you
who you had to be
they were blinded
by who they wanted to be
by the dreams they gave up
by the stories they were told.

When they told you
who you had to be
they couldn’t see
who you are.

You can see.
You can remember.
You can forget.

It is time to return
home to yourself.
Forget who they told you to be
and remember who you are.