“I want to be like him”, I said

As Steve walked down the hall.

Tall and handsome and smart and fit,

He was loved by all.

So I wore my hat like him

And my jacket, like his, was green,

But then I found how Steve

Had always emulated Dean!

Dean’s gait full of panache

He was perfect in EVERY way-

in the way laughed, in the way he dressed

And even in what he’d say!

This was how the world knew him,

But little did I know,

Dean was always insprired by

The football captain Marco!

Marco was the popular guy,

Like him EVERY guy wanted to be,

But boy was I surprised to know

Marco’s role model was ME!

I wanted to be like Steve,

Steve wanted to be like Dean,

Dean wanted to be like Marco,

But to Marco, the king “I” had been!

So one rainy Sunday morning

I asked my soul,

What had I become,

Did I myself even know?

With the incessant pitter-patter

That was heard upon the pane,

Questions popped up in my head

As answers were sought again…..and again….and…again…

Why was I blinded 

By the beauty of the skin?

Did I ever even bother

To take a look within?

In an attempt to be like them,

I forgot my true identity,

I lived like them, I breathed like them,

I had lost my originality!

What was ‘me’ then? Who was ‘I’ then?

Just a clone in every aspect?

A whirlpool of thoughts churned within,

As I now began to introspect…

I realised that in the flock

I was just another sheep-

No different from the others,

No different from what you’ll ever see.

So what HAD I become?

Just a lump of regret?

Adorning a mask

That would conceal my real self?

I was born to stand out

yet I tried to fit in,

And now I was nothing but

Society’s most recent victim…

So one rainy Sunday morning,

I asked my soul,

What HAD I become?

Did I myself even know?