Everyone knows him but no one knows
that there is something about Seth.

He sits alone in a crowd with desires handcuffed
by inner feelings locked away behind the barbed wires
of non-acceptance.  He struggles and turns his back
on his own recognition, peeking through the eyes of a dream
for just a space to be able to live freely –

for a chance to be who he really is.

He lays in a bed of confusion/ distanced
from those close to him.  He speaks
with words that have no meaning/ listens
but no longer hears love.  He is afraid–
stuck between societies vision of him
and the real image he is inside.

He is not perfection so he locks himself away
but there is a need to kick down a suffocating closet
and take in the air of self acceptance and pride;
their disappointment no longer matters:  attitudes
that will threaten to deflate the oxygen of his happiness.

Everyone knows him
because in his eyes is familiarity and through his heart
is a recognition for acceptance.
He is someone’s brother; someone’s son and someone’s
friend who hides behind the mask of discovery

and everyone knows him, but no one knows
that there is something about Seth;
something in an identity yearning to be loved.

© 2011
Tarringo T. Vaughan