I Should Have Known Before
The things that I know now…
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