I Should Have Known Before

The things that I know now…

Photo by Nada Gamal on Unsplash

I should have known before that you are You and I am Me.

I should have known before that you would do You and I would do Me.

I remember all those countless times I thought that I could be someone else,

That I should be someone else because the way I was, didn’t fit in.

I should have known before when you told me “This isn’t the way to be”.

I should have known when you made me think all those things to be my flaws,

All those very things that made me, Me.

I tried so hard to be someone or something that is what they call ‘Normal’,

Only to become a stranger to myself.

My body remained, with a few more lines on my face, thinning hair, and a blurry smile.

But I disappeared.

I should have known before that in the end it was not going to be okay,

Because it never was to be okay.

I should have known before that if I can not be Me, I am nobody,

That if we can not be ourselves, we just can not be!

I should have known before,

I wish I would have known before.

— Prudence