Ratification: A Poem in Rebuke of the Cruelty of Convention

Forgive me.

Let us confine my radiance.

It is safer inside the predictable darkness of your manufactured truths.

Teach me the ways of the mundane.

Dissect my individuality that my pieces be not so offensive as my whole.

Walk me into your divinely diminutive cage.

If we but remove my wings, surely I will fit.

Let us save me from myself.

After all, it is only who I am...

Such an insignificant sacrifice for the acquisition of your superficial approval.

Are you consoled?

I have silenced the plaintive objections of my inner voice that you might hear your insecurities more clearly.

I will endeavour to adopt them as my own.

Undoubtedly there is serenity in your aphotic mantra.

Let me abandon my innovation.

What remains after the evacation of my creativity should be sufficiently pliable.

Is my barren surface now worthy of your projections?

I shall affect death that you may animate my cadaver to your content.

We must entertain the undiscerning masses.

The fetor of my carcass is decidedly less abhorrent than the emanation of my true self.

Authenticity is repugnant.

Dispatch my impudent confidence with great haste lest it defy your self appointed ascendancy.

We only want what is best for me.

It is evident that I am unable to discern such things for myself.

I shall conform for your confirmation.

I shall concede to your condescension.

I shall follow with an obedience as blind as your edict.

I will not be remembered... I will be accepted.

How glorious a fate for us all.