Boxes

We put people in boxes And we say You must be THIS way. We put people in boxes Crammed in. Like contortionists. But without flexibility. We put people in boxes Stored away. Open them when we need something from them. Then put them back on the shelf We put people in boxes Toys too. You can have dolls, but you can’t. You can have trucks, but you cant. We put people in boxes Plastic, like Barbies come in Plastic surgery to fit in the box Shaped like a cube, or a sphere. We put people in boxes And we tell them to get out. But we don’t really want that. We put them in another box. We put people in boxes And we paint the box like it’s Halloween. And the box is a costume but it’s not. You wear it all the time. We put people in boxes And we put ourselves in them too Constantly categorizing Where do I fit? We put people in boxes Man-made, designed And designated to separate. Labeled so we can tell them apart. We put people in boxes Because they are the same Because they are different Because we don’t know. We put people in boxes So many boxes So few HUGE boxes Only two. We put people in boxes Colored boxes Isn’t all cardboard brown? We put people in boxes And I’m tired of thinking about it I’m tired of thinking And I’m not the only one. We put people in boxes We’re too tired to pull them out Too busy. Living our own lives In our own little box.