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Hollow Shell
To those who judge me
before they know me
Call me immature
because of my age
Label me a lesbian
because I have short hair
Assume that they know me
before they’ve even met me
These days
people try to shove me into boxes
I am a number in a system
I am a single point in a string of binary
I don’t matter
I
Am
Nothing
I am a 1 or a 0 in our black and white, either/or world
Because
God forbid
I should ever become an AND
Funny AND depressed
Introverted AND extroverted
Teenage AND mature
What is wrong with me?
I’m shoved into a box that is so sharply defined
merely stretching it
could kill me.
I am defined by my age
my family
my appearance
my gender
my sexuality
my past.
I hate that this happens to me.
They strip away everything that matters
plaster me back together
like a paper mache of stereotypes
and lies
and call me
“normal”
“real”
“whole”
What’s whole about a hollow shell?