Name/Identity Poem

Hello, my name is…
Mychelle,
Reads the sticky label on my shirt.
So, why do you continue
To place a different set of labels on me?
“Only God can judge me”
Is scripted around his neck,
Yet he sits there, trying to dethrone Him.
I am you and you are me!

Then there are the allies,
My support in this War.
They each hold their own set of labels,
Loyal, leader, quiet, shy…
No, no that’s not me!
I’m just a simple girl,
I am a listening friend.
A shoulder to cry on,
But there I go again,
Crossing out Mychelle
To replace it with a new word.
I am you and you are me!

Then there is the derogatory manner,
In which I refer to myself.
A cutter, the daughter
Of an abusive alcoholic,
A fat disappointment.
Now I’m the one in the long black robe,
Pounding the gavel,
“Guilty!” I declare,
As I put on the boxing gloves
And continue to beat myself up.
That’s who I was, not who I am,
And yet in continues to haunt me!
I am you and you are me!

In all reality, I am the one
With the power to observe.
I hear the pitter-pat-pat,
Of the rain gently flooding the gutters.
I am able to talk and communicate,
With a friendly face on the bus.
I stoop to observe a colony of ants,
Quickly and quietly going about their work.
I feel love, jealousy and anguish,
And I am able to understand these feelings.
I smell the sweet aroma of someone’s BBQ
On a warm Sunday afternoon.
I mourn for a friend, an innocent girl
Killed so young.
I bite into a bright red apple,
And taste the sweet juices
That flood my mouth.
I get down on my knees,
And come before my Lord.
I am you and you are me!

I feel so many things
So many things that no matter
How eloquent I typically am with words,
I could never fully capture on paper.
And what I feel, you shall feel.
Worlds apart but not that different are we?
Homo-sapien, human being, young woman.
I celebrate myself!
I am the one who has the choice,
To laugh or cry today.
What will you choose?
Or are you one of the people
That neither cries nor laughs?
I’m sure you have no need to breathe,
To think or blink nor even to live.
Like the crimson fire
flowing through your veins,
You’ve done away with all that non-sense,
To replace it with a more advanced
State of being and way of life.
Mychelle is who I am,
Who am I?
I am you and you are me!