grounded

I'm still tweaking this poem a bit, but I wanted to go ahead share it anyway. I wrote it while sitting at a park today and observing the people and things around me...

GROUNDED

With the sun
holding me safely
in her all-encompassing warmth,
I watch individual
blades of grass
dance in the wind
and am relieved
as I remember
my inherent simplicity.

Grounded in the earth,
I begin to wonder and explore.

Prophecy becomes memory
and memory, prophecy.
They both fight to tell me
who I am.

I am
the 8-year-old girl
riding a scooter aggressively
“like a boy”
and wearing a shiny pink helmet
“like a girl.”

I am
the middle-aged,
developmentally disabled man,
dancing “alone”
shamefully uninhibited
free?

I am
the family of five
on bikes and bike trailers –
babies, helmets, flags,
blankets, snacks, sunscreen.
twirling and needing
pleasure and responsibility.

I am
the hipster teenagers
anxiously yelling profanities,
defined by the gear
in which I’m clad,
desperately seeking
safety, acceptance, identity
in the midst
of inescapable exposure,
vulnerability.

I am
the giggling toddler
running and falling
to the ground
in hysterical anticipation
of my mother’s
playful pursuit.

I am
the 16-year-old boy
risking, playing, creating,
exploring, exerting, expressing,
venting all
on my skateboard
on the half pipe.

I am
the homeless man
sleeping with my head on a rock,
reeking of life’s pain
and empowered by
my own strength
and capacity to survive.

I am
all
and I am
none.
I am
only beginning
to understand.