An old man sits on a bench.
He says nothing.

I walk by.
I gaze into his eyes.
Now I know why he's silent.

i had to go to the library today. i walked through the park to get there. the sun was out but it was freezing and the wind was aggressive. i cut it right in half. a diagonal slice. along the way i touched the trees. i would reach up and run my fingers along the branches. i close my eyes and feel the bark, learning a whole new language. i like to touch the things i pass. trees, fences, telephone poles. it's getting to know my surroundings. it's learning them and learning from them. i want to know my territory by heart. blindfold me, set me free. i'll show you places you've never seen.

who cares if the spaghetti sticks to the ***
who cares if a guest shows up late
it's not her 18th birthday
it's my baby brother's
and I'll wear my nose ring if I want to

Take me into the closet again
beat me with your leather book of
fallacies, conflicting messages strewn across pages
of decades
by faulted scribes, spitting glossolalia
into young children

keep the food from me, I do not need it
as I am only a child of 8
a coldness clenched my hot little body
as I drew rusty nail across pale little arm
the first time, i thought myself to be a god
your Jesus took away my sinful love
for the girl at church.
I will take it away with this nail
i tear it away
as a cold rain runs over my fire
my insides scream as my emotions numb
flightless bird am I, trapped in the nest

all I wanted was anything.

I stand small in this moment
as you lie to the school nurses about my
bruise
       but in the next I am
Tallest for my struggle.
I recall every dark night
starved and worn
barred from the world, I found solace in
a rusty nail
the neighbour's dogs
the asymmetrical patterns in the carpet
the littlest flower
because that was all I could see
from my closet
window,
and that was only when I was tall enough to reach.