I’ve learned how not to miss
the age of tenderness
That I am so lucky to have
seen once
And now that I’ve become older
I’ve how to brush over
My history and how it’s sequenced
When I think about you
I see a person who
Hasn’t existed for a long time
Before you started using,
before I starting choosing
To do the same thing
for the same reasons
The first name I called you
is not a name at all
More of a duty than a function
Often an execution, often
with deep confusion of
‘Who was I when that name
was just mine?’
Like a serpent charmer
negotiating harm
I live with a basket of your silence
And as the years record
I can feel it growing board
But I keep the top on
in the meantime
When I pass my reflection
there isn’t any question of
Where the person in it came from
When I catch myself thinking and
hear the voice that speaks inside
I know where I got my brain from
Every step I’ve strayed
from and followed
Led me to the same location
Every act I’ve forsake
and borrowed
A delivery to now,
And I’ve never wondered
how I came to be
I feel free like you promised I’d be.
