Boxes Checked

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for July 2024 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/

Boxes Checked

I am boiled down

To a square on a piece of paper

Select what applies for:

My gender

My race

My religion

My political party

And that box

That tiny little box

So constraining

Who I am is

Watered down

To one of only a few options

My thoughts

My beliefs

My dreams

My identity

Gone

I become

Faceless

All that is seen is what

Can be quantified and measured

But I am so much more

Than those scratches on a page

Than those rudimentary descriptions

I am my humanity

And it is

Unable to be labeled

Submitted under MRB