The Rebel

James Dean
Mozart
Einstein
Copernicus
Socrates
Galileo
Jesus

We admired them all
Romanticized them
Years later
But no one chooses to be a rebel
Any more than gay black or Jew
And at the time they were scorned
As so is the rebel

Every kid wants to be Jim Stark in rebel without a cause
They don’t get it
Do they
I am strange
I mean really strange
I was worse once
Nerd! Geek! Faggot! Asshole!
Hated by teachers and students alike
Bad clothes and hair and pimples
I was and still am too loud
Opinionated

Yet I try to fit in

No one chooses to be a rebel
I can’t pull off the artsy clothes
Or the sea-green hair
I know
I’ve tried
I never fit in with any crew or tribe
I’m always around
On the outside
Waiting to get voted off the island

Hey Rege
Who wants to be a rebel
Bill Gates
Martin Luther King
Think
Do you want to be me
Even know me
Roll with me

Yet you do not know
I too
May be destined for greatness