One Day

Step One:

Make yourself small.

Be diminutive,

unobtrusive.

The space you take up

should fit neatly

within your original packaging.

You will remember this.

Step Two:

Quiet.

Speak only when spoken to—

No.

Only if required to.

Filling the silence

with your hesitation,

is the equivalent of speaking.

Swallow your words,

this is the pill you will ingest

to keep yourself alive.

Step Three:

Apologize.

You’ll never know for what, or why.

Just know that your sorries

are your barriers.

They will help you deflect,

They will help you hide.

Step Four:

You know nothing.

Even if you do, you don’t.

Pretend.

Pretend and keep pretending.

Feign ignorance

until it is as natural as breathing.

This is your masquerade.

Step Five:

The final step is

to never forget yourself.

Even while buried under

all this performance and pretense,

Remember.

You are not who they have decided you are,

you’re still you through all this.

Only now,

You have learned how to disappear

into societal expectations,

and one day, you will reemerge stronger.

One day you won’t have to hide.

One day…