I am the sapling
Springing into life
In this season of harvests
And puberty blooms
...
I wish to write a poem
A poem about what?
I wish to tell a tale
...
Messenger on a souls errand
When you depart, to relay my story to the world,
After I have crossed, the great sea of rivers
Pray, I beg thee
...
Because you see me smile and smile
And laugh with only my teeth
You think that all is well
And do not know
...
I Am (Nascence)
I am the sapling
Springing into life
In this season of harvests
And puberty blooms
I am the nightingale in the gale
Singing of an emergence
And of late adolescence
That bespeaks the inception
Of a dawn
I am the seed stalk
Rearing my head in revolt
Above the suppressing shallowy soil
The hard brown contrivance
Unable to pin me down.
I am a woman in travail
Wrestling, with the forces of nature and nurture
And with the established conventions
Of the times.
Release me,
O mighty inhibitions
And I shall come forth.