When I was younger,

The first thing I wanted to grow up and be

was

A cardboard box.

Yeah, I know,

Pretty insane of a dream, right?

But I surely thought it was possible,

I mean, you would understand if you looked at my role model as a child.

My dad was a very prominent cardboard man in his career.

He woke every morning and had his coffee,

Black; to stain his teeth the color of the box

Sometimes that wouldn’t work so a cigarette gave the color a bit

Better.

But being a cardboard box is not just the appearance of color

You have to be sturdy, but not

Too sturdy.

I only once saw him bend under the pressure, and well, boxes don’t refill their shape perfectly.

Especially after a storm.

Speaking of storms, to be in this field of work, one must be

Terrified of rain.

Rain melts our skin and breaks our spine.

The storms are the worst, you can’t dance to the sound of whirlwinds.

The only thing boxes like us can dance to is the T.V. static.

But of course, without power, there is no T.V. static so we block up the windows.

I boarded up the windows at the slimmest sight of a rainy day.

Too much sun began seeming suspicious to me once,

So i boarded up regardless of the good intentions.

The sky and all it’s clouds became my worst enemy.

Of course, I did all of this to become just like my dad

I know he’s proud of me-

I hope

He’s proud of me.

I haven’t seen him in a while, but no tears.

Boxes cannot cry.

Tears are like raindrops

Raindrops are like the kids next door

The kids next door are like storms

And i've already explained to you what storms do to people like me

People like us.

Some may say being a cardboard box, and working for everyone else, is bad for your emotional health.

But come on, look at me-

At us

We are perfect.

The smoothest edge on our fingertips, noone spreads messages and protects everyone else as well as we do.

So what if the feelings we hold in the creases between the lining begin to fill up.

We are hollow because we have to be

We have to remember that

We do not matter after we have done our job

My-our job is to continue moving around

What our parents forgot to.

Our job is to be filled with anything others see fit,

Our job is to love being empty,

So to complete our explanation, just remember,.

Be empty,

Don't allow confrontation,

And dear god by all means,

Avoid the storms.