created from cut up poems at the Jigsaw chapbook debut event (May 27, 2017)
Not being able to fit in and be normal, I fought back and choose to accentuate my differences instead. To take away the sting of the humiliation of being different, I choose to beat my recriminators to the punch. Over the years this freakish, differing defense became the mask, the performance. I perform the freak now to fit in. But this is not an insincere masquerade, but rather one of the many costumes I wear, a reflection of slivers of me. I protect the darkest parts of me by shielding it in light. Trying on different identities So much so, you’d never suspect I am hiding something. The best place to hide is in the open, where no one would think to look.
As he reached into her robe She giggled, and handed him his lunch. “Go to work,” she said.
She sits behind me squawking with an adolescent banter that must seem dire Her intensity of voice speaks the same thing I had secretly wished for years, but been too afraid to say “Please pay attention to me.” Speak, I did, for the very first time This awkward message of youthful adoration is not exactly communicated articulately Her only response is, “God, I hate you. Please shut up.” If I am already taking risks with my life, then I will not be silenced For once, I will not back down “You love me. You just don’t know it yet.”