Cookie Cutter

Cookie Cutter! Cookie Cutter!

Everywhere I look, it’s Cookie Cutter!

This color’s in.

Those shoes are out.

I want to break the mold

My desire is to be bold

I long for individuality

Why must I hide in normalcy?

Yet, if I resist censorship,

Do I relinquish friendship?

What will other people see

In the real me?

The me you would see

     Behind the mask

          Beneath the shell,

               Under the facade,

                    Behind the curtain.

A Lioness bold and beautiful?

A Wolf majestic and masterful?

A Gazelle gentle and graceful?

Or a chameleon: without a defining “BLEMISH”?

Will I forever attend a masquerade

Where my hopes are snuffed out inside this gilded colonnade?

Will the “MAGIC” show not end

That I might reveal myself?

Must I be Cookie Cutter?