I am and always have been

held captive in the pointy sharp ground

between my body and its presence

and all that I have to be for others

so I can survive in the world.

 

I am a chameleon that puts on the

colours that are expected so that

I am not eaten and lose this body

that defines me and regulates me.

and makes me the animal that I

always will be in shuffling through life.

 

I am all of my body, as mind and soul,

but I am also a body that forms itself into

a medusa of sorts that inhabits the world

as angel or demon, friend or enemy,

partner or rival or even friend and lover.

 

All of this is me, but all of me is not only

the parts of my body, for I am composed of parts

that others hold that they bring out to

add to the me and extend what

I hear and see and assume.

 

So, I am not all that I am as a body

surviving in the world, bodies among bodies;

I am a human twisted and consumed,

and moved, covered and clothed

with what others think I should be.

 

9/9/2017