You pick me up,
You throw me down.
My painted on smile
Turns to a frown.

Retrieve me when you're bored
To entertain your quests,
And all the bad you've done to me
You once again forget.

As I perform for your audience,
And you dangle my mistakes on a string,
I wish you weren't my puppeteer;
I am unrestrained only in my reverie.

I seem to have lost myself
Beneath this polyester and clay,
And sadly, my decrepit heart
Gets farther off each day.

You touch my worn-out cheek,
And again you start to play.
Please, preserve what's left of me
Before it fades away.

Little puppet on a string,
That is your perception of me.
I dare not move 'till your command.
You release a menacing laugh as I dangle from your hands.

Tied and restrained
Allows not much room to stir,
I'm crippled now, and maimed.
My invaliable dream fades into a blur.

You've been reduced to a careless puppeteer,
Everything I do is discreetly done in fear.
I jump as you pull, I sit as you mull.
My frail, gloved hands have cracked through the years.

Seems as if you're the one with the cold, wooden heart.
I am anxious for the day the two of us may part.
Command me to dance, command me to sing.
But call me by name, because I am not a "thing."

With every tug you give
My withered and frayed strings,
You're also pulling my security,
Taking it away from me.

I remove myself, heart, soul, and mind,
To a place of imagination.
Knowing, in my return I'll find,
A life of dissention, sorrow, and hatred.

I spread my clay-made arms in the air,
And I fly into the night.
No more will your strings burden me,
No more will I have to fight.

I look away to the world below
And inside I begin to wilt.
This sinister world, wasting men before their time
Fills me with unbelievable guilt.

And I find in myself that small hint of light,
Now I am independent and free, I know.
And everyone's sadness and depression arose
And returns to you with no solace or comfort to grow.

And when I am gone, A puppet no more,
Filled with remorse you'll go.
Afraid of life and realization,
Afraid of a world you'll never know.