To Be Me...

I hate you,
the way you mimic me,
calling me no good.
How do you expect me to succeed
with you mocking my every move?

"You can't do it," you laugh in my face
over and over again,
until the words sink into my very spirit.
And I believe you
because you are me.
And who can I trust
if I can't trust myself?

Every day that you weigh me down
with your heavy hand
I feel tinier and tinier
until there is left
only an unfamiliar face.

"Who are you?"
I ask myself.
You know, but you keep the secret
hidden from me.
You know, yet you keep me
from my Self.

I am so far from my own self.
The distance hurts like lovers
forced apart.
I yearn to be with me,
to feel free.

My body aches from the separation,
I can barely move.
Why won't you bring me back
so I can grow once again
into what I am meant to be?

To just be- that's what I want,
-to be me.