Mine to Tell

imagine

your most shameful moments

those chapters of your life

you don’t re-read

even under the covers

late at night

with the flashlight

you were admonished

to extinguish

hours ago

before your eyelids

dredged the shore for sand

those grainy scenes

captured by a drunken

videographer

tripping backward through the mist

overlaid discordant

dissonant minor chords

if you chance upon

a split-second replay

your skin crawls

bowels churn

hair stands on end

 

now imagine

the sensationalized trailer

clipped disjointed

melodramatic

picture the tabloid cover

lurid misrepresentation

where you dined

cannibalistic taloned

simultaneously vicious

predator

stereotypically weak female

 

I eschew

plagiarism

of my autobiography

renounce

counterfeiting

of portraits

for which I never posed

 

I have swallowed the bile

cleansed grit from my eyes

with the flow of copious tears

flattened hairs

under vigorous

warm my own arms

rubbing

I claim the rights

file the copyright

to my own tales

 

I am a warrior, yes

I have been wounded yet

I shed no blood

I courageously wield

my tremulous words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement