Growing Up

Growing up

Was really only physical

Our minds were growing down.

We were asked:

Who are you?

Our names. The only answer.

But our names were never ours

Not really.

They were the preferences of mothers and fathers.

(Of course, the interfering grandmothers)

When we grew older

What are you to be?

A question asked by anyone and everyone.

To them,

A question of which they had no concern

To us. Everything.

Eventually we knew.

And nothing could change us

That's when the world said "no".

We lost hope

We lost knowing

We lost passion.

Forbidden dreams

Forbidden longings

Forbidden lives

We followed

We obeyed

We forgot

Forgot our aspirations

Forgot ourselves

We even forgot our own names.