There Is No Such Thing As I..... Poem by RIC BASTASA

at the end
there is no such true self,
as you decide
to make what you want to be,
to shape the clay that you
are, from one form to another.

did you not tell me, philosopher
that i can be what i want to be?
did you not say that
it is my hand that decides
whether the bird should live or die?
so i am not what you have met
ten years ago,
i am what i am now,
but each moment, each day,
i always change,
and what you know yesterday
what you saw,
is no longer what you know
and what you see today.

so here i am
and here you are
always strangers to each other,
shaking hands with
a river.