the teacher said
"tell us about yourself."

and i searched deep down
saw paris, france
venice, italy and my father when he was young
and great adventures to be told
saw words written on hotel notepads
proclaiming love of lover's past
nothing but a chord or two
to tell the complexity of what i knew

i searched deep down and saw
my soul so perfectly painted
in slashing reds and soft beiges

but
nothing made sense to anyone but me
so i gulped
and said my name.