First there were only ingredients,

full of endless possibility and potential.

Then the people came and decided

which ingredients were satisfactory

to societal standards,

and discarded the suboptimal.

Encouraging eggs,

friendly flour,

stalwart sugar,

mannerly margarine,

brilliant baking powder,

and vivacious vanilla.

All were put in a cast-iron bowl,

and society mixed to the desired consistency.

The mixture was then shoveled

into confining molds.

The molds differed,

yet once they were determined,

they could not be remodeled.

The individual had no say.

The molds were thrust

into a merciless, fiery oven.

And the newcomers were baked

until society decreed they were perfect.

Still, those who were on the outskirts

were scorched around their edges,

and it was the desire for perfection

that made them flawed.

Finally, the creations were removed

from the authoritarian oven.

Only to be eventually consumed

by their ruthless creators.