Arms pulled taunt
No room to move
To breathe
Forced to walk
to move
To live
To the rhythm
Of someone else’s beat
Standing up
On my own feet
But no control
No free will
Just the mindless motion
Calm in the commotion
Forced to be
By none other than
Society
I am nameless

I am nameless
With a face
An identity
Still nothing but a liability
But somewhere deep
I promise I feel pain
Something
Though many cannot see through
This perfect facade
My tears buried
beneath this ceramic mask
Forcing me to smile
And all the while
Dying on the inside
I am nameless
Just another one of those teenage girls
Forced to live in a perfect world
When instead I hold myself
In the still of the night
When the pleasure of darkness comes
And I hang my ceramic mask
After another ceramic day
Living in a world of china
I am nameless
because I do nothing
To resist the pull to not
Not eat
Not binge
Not relax
Only stop and be
Be skinny
Be “happy”
Be perfectly
    Glass and
        clay
Forced to play
This stupid game
Society made
Hide and seek
Hide my “flab”
Seek perfection
Stand a little straighter
Suck in my gut
Smile more
Laugh less
I am nameless
Just another child
Seeing nothing but imperfections
Everything that lessens
My self value
And as I watch it drop
I am stuck
In a never ending loop
of loving myself
And seeing just how far I can stoop
I am nameless
Yet somehow people still
Call me something
They made up
So that they could focus
on the
    Clay and
        Glass
Pulled by string
Forced to move into the light of day
All the while the mind's eye
Playing hide
and seek
Hiding my emotion
Seeking out devotion
From another
Imperfect reflection
Spiraling pain in the eyes
Dancing and waving goodbye
I am nameless
Even as I stand among a crowd
Of thousands like me
A sea
Of lost faces
Disgraces
With too much
Of this
Too little of that
Too much fat
Too little geometry
Blameless
And shameful
Having done nothing wrong
But with no will to do nothing right
besides play the game
The one that tells them they aren’t good
enough
unless they
eat less
stress more
And kneel to those
Whom others adore
I am nameless
Even as I suffer
Like the 30 million others
In the US
Kneeling over their toilets
In an attempt to subtract
What they just added
Or not do math at all
To refuse food with a smile
“I already ate”
Then drinking too much
To sedate
Their dying hunger
I am nameless
Even as I sit in Health Class
And am told
That I am perfect
By someone
Who is cashing in a check
For doing so
For telling us to keep adding
Because our bodies will do the subtracting
but never enough
to be even
I am nameless
As I ceramically smile
Smoothly sucking in my gut
Pulled by strings too tough
I nod
And agree
When people say
that I am skinny
But past my mask
Behind Ceramic eyes
Are my own
Begging you not to believe
To see
But I am made of
    glass
        And Clay
I am nameless
Waking up every day
Concealing my face
    Glass and
        Clay
Today I add paint
And subtract feeling
    There, perfectly
        equal
New clothes
Fake confidence
Fake everything really
As I sit in envy
Of anyone who doesn’t
Stew in jealousy
Teeth gleaming
Perfect smile
    Happy
Doesn’t touch my eyes
or soul
    Equal
    Balance
Ceramic China
So easily broken
Fragile is beautiful
Broken Perfection
I am nameless
Kind of like
Some of you
Hiding parts of you
In dark and quiet places
    Clay and
        Glass
All the while
Screaming for help
We Are Nameless
And while we are our own worst enemy
The real question is
Can Glass and clay really ever have
        An Identity