Undertones

I walk polished corridors, shining in borrowed gloss.

I slip into shadows, carrying colors they never named.

They see a single shape, clean and fixed.

I shift between forms, fluid as breath.

My smile rehearsed, a mask painted soft and still.

My grin is jagged neon, flickering with hunger and heat.

They chart desire in straight lines.

I sketch in spirals, tangled and true.

They call me “average,” they call me “kind.”

I call myself radiant, unbroken, unashamed.

They frame my body as border and limit. Rigid and square.

I wear it as canvas, unruled and alive. Flowing and layered.

The frame holds me steady, trimmed to fit the wall.

But outside the frame I sprawl, glowing wild and whole.

They ask for one answer, one name. My label.

I am a chorus, a constellation of selves. Everchanging, unique, and whole.