Unwrapping during Christmas, snipping tape
Excitement as one saw another’s shape
On the table we gathered, one plus one
Then two plus two and so on until done

For some it came easy, they had many friends
For some, not so much, but they fit in in the end
They grouped together and groups became obese
But I was small and an oddly tessellating shaped piece
No attachment, I feel so out of place
Is it my characteristics? The look of my face?
The size of my shape? The color of my skin?
Might as well give up, I’ll never win
No interlocking in the corner or anywhere in the middle
Still off to the side, feeling the person inside me grow little
Trying to be seen, I feel so spent
Like a Catholic who is giving up hope for lent
Would I still be seen under a magnifying glass
Like an ant climbing on a blade of grass?
But if I was, what would happen I inquire
One day would the glass shift and I be set on fire?
The more I pushed in the more I was pushed away
The sun in me now tucked under the skies of grey
The Sole that has just squashed an ant is now on my chest
But even wounded and dead ants are carried back to the nest
A part of a whole, but not at all. Apart!
I can feel my chest caving in on my heart!
Stronger than ever the group is on the prowl
Hissing at me, some even growl
I am nothing to them. I am nothing to them
Could have grown into a flower, but am just a stem
Like a broken puzzle, so is my heart and mind
I take a step forward but told to stay behind

I watch them walk. Racing fear, daunting on
Can’t hear them talk. Disappear; they are gone
Left with nothing but thoughts in my head
Lonely, beaten, wounded; left for dead.