With each new meeting, a piece more of me is revealed

And removed to be recast. They say it’s important .

As it’s borne away I watch it leave, I grieve, silent; I wait.

It’s worked, formed, set aside to prove and conform.

Shaped, contorted and cast with their ideals;

Rejoined, I embrace it and it changes me – I am less me.

A new normality, reworked to fit me, uneasy it sits,

More of me gone.  I am rewarded for silence and compliance and

Kept content. Keeping my words internal as my feeling burn

I learn to open my mouth and deny my ideas.

I allow them to shape and change and rearrange me.

I douse the flames and exchange integrity for comfort and kind words

That flow over me.  I am asleep.