Linoleum Prison

Heels on linoleum clickety clack like the palpable tick and tock of time standing still 
Your chirpy cheerfulness grinds my tender nerves like sandpaper
I hate how you never use my name. 
I was someone before I became "honey" and "sweetie", just another face 
Trying to be myself in an endless abyss of tile and industrial strength cleaner
Lemon fresh is bitterness to me, a constant reminder of loneliness and loss. 
I want out for just one moment of humanity, a dance in the sunlight a walk in the park
A hand to hold and eyes to look into mirroring back something that looks remarkably like love.
I dare to dream. 
Reminders of beauty outside this sterile prison are few and far between 
I am forgotten, "honey," "sweetie," senile, irrelevant.