My people

You know they are your people

When they refuse to engage 

That blackened story crafted in youth

Actively carried on each morning 

Told to gather pats

You, my people, instead

Hold my head in your hands 

Collect my eyes 

Even feeble, fearful 

maintain 

You show me my brightness

Dingy reflection 

But still, light 

You will know them 

When they resist the urge to look away 

As your voice cracks

Shameful

They hold that gaze 

As long as it takes 

To rewrite the lines told 

With a bold ending worth believing in

Together

When I pull that thread as hard as I can 

Only to come undone 

My people do not wrap me up 

Sheets stay folded 

They wait

They sit with me 

All gawky 

And we laugh

Heaving laughter

We are ridiculous together

You are my people 

A tribe

Tiny gang 

And I return, kindred 

Believing each of you worth the effort 

To bare all with 

To story tell with 

To pioneer and burrow with