Unburden thyself

How are some people’s disadvantage their advantage?
That those who know you more are strangers
And family is a tree that keeps branching off
Into assumptions and boxes with the wrong labels

How is it the idea of love hardly matches reality?
You say my mouth is sharp but find it blunt
I swallow my feelings like everything else I fail to say
About the too many rules with misguided lengths

When a good ruler does not draw a good line
Measurements are bound to go wrong
I’m a woman, black, Nigerian with long list of baggage
These boxes I tick are not half of who I am

Vera