A face in the crowd – A Poem by Sarah Tilsley

They say you’re too much and too loud,
So you quieten yourself to blend in with the crowd.

Then they ask you some questions, they prod and they poke.
Why are you so quiet you used to love a good joke?

You say that it’s nothing, you’re still just the same,
And they eventually stop asking, and you take all the blame.

You take it all on, as though it’s your own,
And wear it around as though it’s your new cologne.

You then lose yourself under the should’s and the shit,
Until you remember it’s you who took the hit.

You were buried and hidden, because of a few,
and let it remove the you that you knew.

So you vow to get yourself out of the prison
That tried to keep your personality hidden.

You dig and you push through all of that muck,
And come out the other side, you’re no longer stuck.

You remember who you are now,
And you make a vow

To never let another living soul
Put you in that terrible hole.

You show up as loud and as proud,
And now you finally stand out in a crowd.

Poem by Sarah Tilsley