Crushed: A Poem About Breaking Free From Society’s Cage

You know the problem with people
The problem with every freaking person
They like you
They talk to you
They mould you.

I am sorry
I don’t want to fit in your mould.
I don’t want to be bent
as per your whims and fancies,
desires and requirements.

I cant live like this anymore.
I cant be caged anymore
in your chains of insecurity,
mindlessness and orders.

You take my identity
and trim it to match your idea
of perfection.
You change my eyes
to see the world as you always wanted it to be.
You change me
Completely
Unabashedly

As if my body and my soul
is not mine anymore;
But rather owned by you.
You cut my sides and trim my fringes
because
they don’t fit your idea.
You cover the scars that I carried with pride.
You twist my tongue,
so much so that
I start speaking like you.

You bend my legs and arms,
to the extent of them breaking,
to fit your narrow meanings of
Perfect
Ideal

But these chains,
these restrictions
are choking me,
I can’t breathe

I can’t live like this anymore.
I can’t be caged anymore.
You maimed my identity
crushing my confidence,
under your definitions of proper and improper.

Soiled my soul to see
your colours of beauty.
And admired when I was bleeding
because of the pins you used to keep
My getup intact.

But this ends now
Once and for all.
This happened before me
Might happen after me
But I won’t be a part of this.

I am broken,
Yes.
But I will fly out of this jail,
that you call a nest.
With broken wings
And determined heart
I will fly.

Looking back
You could change everything
But not my courage.

Nandini Singh is an 18-year-old majoring in English, political science and history at Christ University, Bengaluru. Find her on Instagram and Twitter @_writerbro 

Featured image credit: Sathis Ragavendran/Flickr