I Am Not Me Poem by Zooey Lichty

I am not me
I am not my personality
I am my heart
And my heart is me

Yet it does not belong to me
It belongs to someone else
This someone else lives in my heart

I have given him my heart
I have given him me
I have gave him myself

And I am sad about it
I willingly gave it to him
and he willingly accepted it
yet he didn’t return the gift

he kept it and broke it
he kept me and broke me
he ripped me into pieces
he ripped my heart into pieces

when he finally returned my heart to me
it was barely recognizable
I was barely recognizable
he taped and safety pinned it back together
and then sewed it on to my sleeve

I am now on my sleeve
instead of where I am suppose to be
in my body,
in a cage
where it is useful
where I am useful