"Identity" by Julio Noboa Polanco is a poem about a singular identity awash in a constrained group culture. The poem starts by comparing unnamed individuals to flowers.
Let them be as flowers, always watered, fed, guarded, admired, but harnessed to a pot of dirt.
These flowers have what they want. They have no fear of going without. The sun will not stop shining on them, and they will always have admirers. However, they will never be free. They must stay where they are, at the mercy of those who tend to them. These handlers give, but they may also take, plucking the flowers from their happy home. The narrator does not want to be a flower. He would rather be free. This, he feels, would make him feel the "madness of the world." He's willing to make some sacrifices for that. He's willing to be unseen and shunned. The poem ends with these lines.
If I could stand alone, strong and free, I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed.
The narrator is struggling with his identity through the course of the poem. The things he wants are different from what others want, and he goes through the ramifications in this poem, but it's a trade he's willing to make. Being strong and free is more important than being beautiful but weak and trapped.
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