Just Let Me Be Me

I feel the sun’s kisses on my back

as I walk in tranquility through the park,

when I see accusing twin barbed eyes

burrowing and stabbing into my soul.

You can’t be me – step out of my mirror

I have no twin although you’re a xerox

But in my heart, I know I’m the writer

of your rhythm and part of your reflection.

You walk toward me in worn out socks

“You’re not me!” I scream, “I want to be free.”

I deny to my image that we’re one and the same

as her heavy anchors weigh me down with chains

I am an only child, but deep down in my core,

I know we have the same thoughts,

walk the same walk, products of same mold

used to shape us in the same image.

I cry in sorrow searching for explanation -

I’m not a carbon copy, a blip of nothingness -

don’t want this glass prison with her as cellmate

She’s not an ocean like me but a mountain

dead of winter night, an undertone of me.

I shake my head, trying to escape

but everywhere I look I see copies,

lined up and ready to take my place.

Oh no! They’re all clones of me from same cells

mindless product of a mad scientist,

breathing on own but attached at my hip.

I must make the best of this and figure out

how to take advantage of multiple clones.

I send them to work at my job,

use their bodies as spare parts when needed.

I use them to fill my marital bed

when I want affairs with someone else.

I am not defined by clones - I strive to be free

I am one of a kind, just let me be me!