Peace to everyone! I wrote this poem to illustrate the way my family can
make me feel when they expect more of me than I am capable of and refuse to
accept that I am different than they are. Sometimes it almost seems like
they are blind to who I really am, closing their eyes to pretend that I am
just like they want me to be. Anyway, enjoy!

_
When you look at me today
What are you seeing?
Choosing an imagined way
An unreal being
I know you distort your gaze
Shadowed illusion
From under veiling haze
Chosen delusion
Why must you believe one thing?
I show another
But you close your eyes to bring
The dreamed up other
A girl fulfilling commands
Not hesitating
Yields to spurious sanctions
Without debating
How can I live up to this?
I search within me
Nowhere showing decorous
Ways you try to see
The scathing expectations
Burning holes inside
Fettered by realizations
From which I can't hide
I know inside you love me
But do you like me?
There's so much good you could see
But compared to "false me"
Your illusion, I'm nothing