Growing Up / Growing Apart:

Why should anybody want to change you?

I suppose if you chew your toe nails

And spit them out in bed

One would try to encourage

Less antisocial habits,

Or at least brush the bed out

Before one retires.

But to change you as a person?

To change the basic you?

To try to turn you

Into somebody else?

In the end, respecting the right

Of the individual

If you don’t like the way

Somebody is, or has become,

If you go off them,

Leave them to be what they want to be

And find somebody else

Who suits you better.

Or, if that option lacks appeal,

Respect their individuality

And change yourself.