Let me tell you a
secret.
Let me show you
who I am.
Let me open my drawers
and fish out my notebook,
The notebook
I write in,
Draw in,
Sometimes silently
smile into.
Let me unzip my
exterior and
remove my shadowy mask,
For that is not who I am.

I am not a hardened shell,
I am not a shadowy face.
I am every color of our unexplored
universe,
I am a shape-shifting soul,
exploding like red fireworks into
a velvet black sky,
I am the glowing embers of a
dying fire,
warm and humming.
I am the iridescent wings
of a tiny hummingbird,
I am a red sunrise, bursting over the mountains
like ripe grapes in a sticky hand.
I am a book on a shelf.
I am dusty and faded, my spine
stained with ink and
my pages
filled with thought.

Let me show you that I am all these things,
And please,
let me tell you
that
honestly,
the secret is,
you are,
too.