"Here, here, here now don't cry
You raised your hand for the assignment
Tuck those ribbons under your helmet
Be a good soldier"

dear adoles/adsaige:

this feels strange. I feel as if I'm in primary school again, and this is some sort of silly assignment. However, at that age, I could get away with asking simple questions and giving trivial facts. Did they really care what my name was, where I was from, what school I went to, what grade I was in and what my favourite colour was? I couldn't settle on any favourites till my 20s, my favorite colour has been varying shades of blue for the past 6 years but no one cares to ask anymore.

I'm not sure what I'm meant to write, I can no longer define my life by my grade in school or by the number of friends I have (or their names), my age is supposed to be a secret (I'm a woman after all) I have a job but no one wants to hear about that, it bores ME to tears. I am a poet, but so are you. I am a human, but so are you. I wish I could tell you I was some sort of alien from some undiscovered planet, I wish I could tell you something you didn't know. In grade 5, at the age of 9, I told my entire class my favorite song was "Lollipop" by the Chordettes, cause I liked making the "pop" sound and the "boom, boom, boom" Little did I know it was a euphemism for a sex act. I was the laughing stock of the entire class with sponges for brains that clearly soaked up more than I.

Though, in the end, the truth is, the only thing anyone really cares about is themselves. What is a friend but a friendly stranger? What is an assignment but a tool to teach you how to think? We only really know ourselves and sometimes even that is impossible.

Hello fellow stranger
How do I know my name is really mine?

"Mother, the car is here
Somebody leave the light on
Just in case I can remember where I come from"

(quotes at top and bottom from Tori Amos's song "Mother")