When society speaks to me,
It gives me mandates,
Like all my life is what you
Want me
To be

And why does my world
Have to be like yours

Can I not live as me,
As who I am,
And want to be.
Rather than as you.

I want two pets,
A place to write for hours,
And to read for even more.

But I don’t want to be,
What you want me as.

I want a PhD
And a seminar style class
But not to do
What you tell me to.

I want time on my own
And with my friends,
Rather than as a slave

To the rigours of society
Because I will not be defined
By long dead men
Who imagine the world the
same
As it always had been

(for them)

These people I have not met
Do not control me.