Tell me something about yourself

Tell me something about yourself

Five simple words

All harmless on their own

But order them together

And I dread them like no other

The older I become

The more routinely I’m asked

The same vague questions like:

What do you want?

Where are you from?

Why are you here?

What’s your next step?

And why should we care?

As if my life and my person

Will reveal all their worth

In the very few lines

I’m allowed to put forth

How does one describe color

In just a sole breath

The way we see, feel, remember

In a single swift stance

For I am a spectrum

Of every color you can think of

And a living reminder

That nothing stays for too long

I am constantly changing

From red to blue

And endlessly evolving

Every moment, like you

The raw and truest parts of us

Can be so overlooked

When we are only being measured

In a bullet point or two

Reduced to a label

Attached to a title

You and I are more

Than what's jotted down on paper

We overflow with color

So radiant and unique

We are orange and green

And every hue in between

They take our name and our status

Our birthplace and our skin

They take who we love

And what we choose to believe in

They learn as little as they can

And fill in the rest of the lines

With anything but color

Are we really surprised?

Never forget

That each person you met

Every hardship you knew

And all you went through

Along with songs you sang

And memories you made

Will make up the colors

That inevitably make you

So don’t let somebody

Who limits you to two

Persuade you in believing

Those are your only hues

You are the brightest of yellows

And the deepest of violets

You will be bound no longer

To those colorless reports

There is so much more to know about you