I may as well be glass
The way
You see through my mask
Is one of the few strengths you hold over my head
Yet it's enough
For you to sit comfortably
In the balconies
Enjoying my performance from afar.

Your eyes follow my every move
Every choice, marred by the voice
In the back of my head
Tempting me to do the unthinkable
Defy, and shatter whatever you set in stone

But fate unfolds like the cards said it would
My world, protected by omniscient goals
In exchange for the value
You extract
Each time I prove my own success.

We're fish in a bowl
Watched from all angles
Tangled in the stakes of a grander match

Between calculating hands
That, with no mistakes
Command the roles we take.

My only wish
Was to be my own protagonist
Kiss ignorance in bliss
Or fold inward, and realize
The cause of this audience.

If that cannot be done
Perhaps
That was why I stood out from the selection
My actions
Always reflecting outwards, away from its origin

I'm the tipping point
A crack in the glass
The catalyst of a wondrous and deadly display.

-the chosen one

This poem, along with the title, was also inspired byThe Night Circus. I visualized the narrator as Tsukiko, a mysterious and elegant contortionist who spoke of the circus performers being like "fish in a bowl."