Damaged Goods

I was packed up

and shipped out.

I was sent to a place -

I was kept in the dark.

I arrived whole

and filled with curiosity.

But the way things were done meant

I had to sing a different tune to fit in.

I got packed again with four others.

They were different but the same.

They also sang the same tune to fit in.

And soon they forgot what their original song was.

I didn't care anymore about fitting in-

Because I was suffocating.

I had no room to breathe

and no space to feel free.

Claustrophobic at the core.

I began to be defiant

and voice a song I made up.

It sounded sharp

and displeasing to the ear.

But it didn't matter

because people started to leave me alone.

And then when I had enough of it all

I shipped myself out.

And as I left I had holes in me

and I was no longer whole.

I broke parts of me when I sang

the shrieking song that was mirthless.

I left some remnants of me behind

as I just wanted to get away

so I could finally feel me again.

Over the years, my holes have filled slowly

but I'm patchy,

suffered a few scratches

and my whole looks like its from a different era.

I still have pieces I need

to collect

to remember who I was.

And I'm beginning to sing

a tune I once knew

but it feels new.