See Me As I Am
By Beverly Greene
For Jamie: I'll always be here to lend you my voice when you can't find your own!
By Beverly Greene
For Jamie: I'll always be here to lend you my voice when you can't find your own!
NOTE: This poem is protected by international copyright laws and may NOT be reproduced in any form without Beverly Greene's expressed and written consent.
You know nothing about me,
but I long to give you
a glimpse into who I am.
You will never know me
as a person as long as you
continue to see me
with blinders on.
I can't be the fake person
you wish me to be.
I can't live my life
by your unbending rules.
I can only live by
the conditions my heart
lays out for me.
I can only be who I am
and I will never again
pretend to be the person
you want to make me out to be,
but I wish to share with you
the person that I am.
See me as I am,
accept me for what you see
and forget your ignorant dreams
of what you wanted me to be.
I can't live
in your unrealistic world
where nothing
is less than perfect
and everything
agrees with you.
Life takes over
where fantasy ends
and my life is here,
but your fantasy of me
is not entirely dead.
I am what you want,
who you would be proud of,
if only your eyes would see.
If only you could look past
your carefully selected Bible quotes
and unknown "truths"
built on the ideas of others
you could see me clearly.
Without the rose coloring
or eyes tainted with hate
you could finally see
all that I have become.
I am honest and strong,
proud and loving,
intelligent and giving.
I have so much to offer you
but you can't get past
your old fashioned ideas
of hating those
who are unlike you.
But, I'm not unlike you.
I am your daughter,
a part of who you are.
Like it or not,
I am who I always was,
only now I wish to share
with you another part
of what makes me
who I really am.
I am a whole person
with a life outside of work
and household pets.
I am a person beyond
my sexual identity.
I am a complete person
outside of my relationship.
I am a person made
up of a complex combination
that you know nothing about.
But I want to share it with you.
I want you to share my love,
to share in my happiness,
to see that I am ok.
I need you to feel
my love for you
and acknowledge my respect
while understanding
that I can not live
by your definitions.
I beg of you to open
your mind to the idea
that not everything
is as you thought it was.
I never waivered
in my love for you.
I never stopped thinking
of your feelings
and of what you
must be going through.
I only wish that you
would give me the same
and try to understand
how I feel,
what I am going through.
You only have to deal
with the shame
of having a daughter
that you know others
will not approve of.
I have to deal with
YOUR shame of me.
But, I will no longer
be ashamed because you are.
I will never again
hide behind a facade
of ideologies
pushed down my throat.
I refuse to ever
forget who I am
in order to make you
or anyone else happy.
I have the right to my life,
the right to be happy,
to find and enjoy love.
I will not give that up
just as I would never
expect you to.
You can not ask me
to pretend to be
something that I am not
just to make you happy.
You can not allow yourself
to ignore major factors in my life
and still claim to know who I am.
Take me for the wonderful woman
that I have become
or hold on to your dazed dream
of what I might have been,
but you can't achieve both.
So, make your decision now.
Accept me for who I am
or leave me alone.
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� 1999 Beverly Greene owns all rights to this original poem.
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