All my life I have
dabbled in telling people precisely what
it is I need to hear, and tried
to convince myself the words I planted
in their mouths came
to them, unbidden inspiration, sentiment, however
you want to call it. All my life, I have
hated how what I need
is false, lies, trickery, never
true. All my life
I have wrestled with acceptance
of how my needs never coincide
with others' words. All my life, how
was I to know that I could never
prepare, never ready myself for
the shock of you
saying what I needed
to hear, unasked
unprecedented.