Thinking Outside The Box

For all my life I've envied those
who lived and played inside;
I thought that I was wrong because
my thoughts and deeds didn't coincide.
I was always on the outside
longing to be invited in;
and this would end the loneliness
that dwelt inside my skin.
-
I remember on election day
as we all went out to vote . . .
I voted for my candidate
and as his name I wrote . . .
I waited for results and the
announcement of his name.
If my candidate won,
my joy was that I had voted the same
-
as all of those inside, and
I wasn't voting from outside;
no, I was with the winners,
I was voting from inside.
Sixty plus years I struggled
to be what I was not.
To blend in with those inside;
to think the things they thought.
-
And now, I hear them saying
to both the "Doves" and "Hawks" . . .
That those inside are wrong
and must learn to "think outside the box"
Does this mean that my position
on the outside looking in
(while disparaging my eccentricity's)
was the place I should have been?
-
So, now my view "outside the box"
is what others aspire to
And all along I was right in
the things I chose to do.
Now those inside are questioning
the things they think and say,
and struggling to get outside so
they can think and do my way.