2023 NaPM 14 April

[Wjames]

Ego

I am frightened of the blue eyes gripping
my heart, tearing through my pupils with claws
and filling up my stomach with drippings
of blood, a microscope exposing flaws.

I want to be a flower in a field
of bunnies hopping circles in the light,
without a sword to judge my battered shield
for strength, a bed for bees after a flight.

I want to be a tree in a forest,
to bask with roots entwined in knots below,
to decompose like rain becoming mist
diffusing through the moss that always grows.

I pray that death destroys the self in full,
and I am shepherd, sheep, a wolf, and wool.