I thought I was a person.

Identify me!

My spirit cries out for attention.
Its despair
Thickens the air
Of dissension
That quiets my raspy voice box.

I run to the mirror.
What happened to you, my reflection?
Why do you dispute me?
All I want to do is love you,
But you have other ideas.

I stand before you,
Dissecting myself in your presence
So that I can figure
The true desires of my heart,
To escape the lies
I have heard from others…

And from you – myself!

Why are you so cold
In your distance?
My dissonance
Is the manifestation of my pride,
Which has only lain waste my insides.

Oh, gnarls at my crown,
Wilt thee save me from this empty town,
Where the voices are acid rain,
The precipitation of toxic clouds?

Identify yourself, tarnished one!

These blood-soaked rags,
My skin,
Are as thick as scars can be;
They are callous on the outside and in,
Having been cut transversely,
Irreversibly.

The phrases of Judgment
Are branded on my soul;
Aether has left its mark
On my memory as a whole.

The words are complicated.
My feelings seem just.
The tug of the wind
Is all that I need
To blow away the dust.

Identify yourself if you must!

An affirmation might as well be a dissertation,
For sometimes lives collapse,
Pressured by the weight of a single word.

Identify yourself! Who are you?

No, Identity! Who are you?

What are you but an encyclopedia of experiences
Reinforced by an array of cultural norms
And a litany of second opinions?

You – Identity –
Are a tool of the status quo
To classify and sort people into boxed roles.

You first divide us arbitrarily
By teaching us which labels fit us best.

You share their characteristics next,
So that we do all the work for you
By diagnosing our own differences as disorders;

They need not be True
For us to manipulate ourselves into disease
According to the bandwagon effect.

Identity – you can be false and fractured, too!

In fact, the dictionary reveals
At least seven distinct definitions for you.

Why so aloof?
Your many faces are proof
That we cannot cling to just one of them.
To do so – Identity –
Is extreme self-deception.

But who am I to challenge your perception,
When the noose around my neck hangs tall
On the faulty-frame that will support my fall
Once I am blamed for exposing you, all-in-all?

Identity – if that be thy label –
Identify yourself at the table!

Speak now or remain silent,
For the mirror’s magnetism is mesmerizing
As the wrinkles in time
That are the reflection’s beady eyes.
Menacing as they are wise,
They see through everything the light despises.

Will you be the bridge or the barrier?
Who is your master?
Can you save yourself from disaster?

Who am I to ask these questions?
I am you and you are I.
Call me by my name, reckless one!

You have been identified.

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