"fragments"

Fragments of myself fell off

until I had lost them all,

I had lost the soul

until I was nothing

but a performing shell-

I had forgotten

who I was because I tried so hard

to fit,

I never wanted to but sometimes practicality overrules desire,

sometimes I forced myself to collapse

after the black stars in front of my face began to fade

and sometimes I threw the crown off of my head

because the attention meant that they might know.

I lost myself becoming one of them

and I forgot to pick up the remnants

of who I once was,

the memories that rested deep under my ribs

were only recovered once they cracked

and once the heart dissolved in the caustic acids of life.