Confined | Teen Ink

Confined

April 12, 2023
By thegoldiloxmethod BRONZE, Bordentown, New Jersey
thegoldiloxmethod BRONZE, Bordentown, New Jersey
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
“The world is dark and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.”<br /> ~Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Desperaux


I judge you, you judge me

Putting each other in boxes 

Of what we think we should be

Following the age-old rules

What lunch table I sit at, what group you're in

The clothes I wear, the parties you attend


I judge you, you judge me

I call you names behind your back

You laugh about me behind your hands

We pretend we don’t play games of attack

When forced together, we don’t take a stand

We sit in our boxes and stay behind lines

We wear masks and lie that everything's fine


I judge you, you judge me

I wish you were kinder

You wish I were cooler

We’ll say “Don’t mind her”
We act as if we know one another

You’re good at sports

I’m good at theater

She’s friends with them

He’s dating her


I judge you, you judge me

I box you up in what you’re good at 

I box you up and compare you to myself

You’re beautiful, my chest’s too flat

You’re intelligent, while I need help

I categorize you by the friends you have

I categorize you for the things you say

I categorize you as so much better than me


I judge you, you judge me

I judge the parts of you that don’t deserve to be

You judge the parts of me that you don’t understand

Both of us our foolish, hiding behind our hands

If we stepped out of boxes or looked past our lines

Maybe we’d see more than the signs that say “Everything’s fine”

That’s a lie

No one is fine

No one is fair to themselves

Every box I force you into walls me in too

I judge myself, you judge yourself

Both of us need to be freed from the places we’re shelved


The author's comments:

Everyone talks about how teens (and girls especially) spend a ton of time judging each other in high school. What they forget to mention is how often those judgments on others are then turned on ourselves. She's pretty-- I wish I were like that. She's mean to me-- but I want her to like me anyway. And every teenager that you think is fine, all the girls that you spend high school wishing you were, they aren't fine and they are spending high school wishing they were you.


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