Defying Tradition

I am enslaved by the standards of society
Beauty and perfection oppress me
Dangling like ropes before my eyes
They are nooses that will be strung
If I disobey 

I am bound and gagged 
Watching the handsome millionaires
Prominent politicians
Stunning models
Climb what we call the ladder of 
"Success"
And carve their names into a limestone plaque
Only so that the rain will grind their legacies
Into the dust

I am committed to walk this bridge
To follow in the forgettable footsteps
Of every person that once entered this selective system
And every person that plunged into the roaring river below

The choice is unbearable
Either I will become an unremarkable stone 
in a bridge of concrete
And my name will vanish with the decades

Or
 I will become a defier of tradition
and my name will leave an ineradicable stain
Disfiguring the hard work of  my ancestors