If all your eyes ever see are your feet,
Fraying shoelaces dragging the crowded halls,
What can you be but blind
To your own uncertainty?

You think that if you wear your brother’s hand-me-downs,
Or put your hair up so the boys don’t turn their heads,
Or sit at the table by the dumpster,
No one will see you.
If you are stopped, if someone asks,
Then its just the sameold sameold.
“Hey. Whats up? Yeah, fine. Ugh, I hate that class too.”
Nothing memorable, and that’s just the way
You want it.

But it doesn’t matter how you’ve changed,
How he turned you into a shadow,
Trampled by him until you have to hide
Yourself just to escape.
I still see you.
And I miss the one you were.
Now is not that time for an I-told-you-so,
But I have to say something to pull
Your eyes off the linoleum.
You have yourself convinced that you are invisible,
Or worse.