I am
beyond what you see
when you turn your I on me

The heart can love while the hands hate.
I close them together
for the prey
I ate.

How can humility match this raging fire within?

The furnace breaths. Alive
in harmony. Hearth built strong.
Bellows balanced in a steady stream.
Useful : Proud in action and function.
My body steams
learning to trust
temperament.

I am more than a passenger.
I am the reactor.
Power sputters, spurts, spews.
I am the greatest factor.
The soul protagonist of my chapters.
This scene's star actor.
Purring ad lib in sync with script,
lapping up rapture.

I am more a warrior than a man.
I chose the pen. I did not choose the hand.
An intention is freedom.
My will will be my leader,
ultimately undefeated:
surrender.

In all my strength as a child
I was a pebble in someone else's shoe
and the boulder he rolled every day.

I want to retreat from the reality I created.
Hide in an old, faded memory.
Out of all the worn, stuffed animals that surround me
my truest friends are the ones that can found me.

Rickity-tickity-clak. Onomatopoeia for a bygone age.
Soon the distinct, sometimes irritating/sometimes soothing signals
of a box sailing along a track will be stuck in the past.
A vintage sound.

Dreaming cat beside me
teaching ease.

Desire burns through
the clothing of my civility
as easily the fumbled ember from my cigarette.