And I Always Will Be

I am a poet because it is easier to

layer the bloodstains

with metaphor than to showcase

the crime scene itself

I am a poet because I can be

this crackpot coward and

the most beautiful girl God ever gifted the world with

I am a poet because I can paint a picture without
a single stroke of a brush;
that's why I keep calling it art

I am a poet because my activism is still art
I am a poet because I perceive the world through
a greyscale lense, nothing without nuance,
and each day,
my eyes hurt a little more, but I keep coming back

I am a poet because I have fallen in love with
this way of transliterating my own soul, this
style of expression, this excellence
in the English language
that anyone could create a space in.

I am a poet because Maya Angelou died
and it hurt

I am a poet because I don’t need
a telescope to see the galaxy - it’s right there,
and so are you, between the stars,
lying within constellations like some kind of a lost lover
I am a poet because anything can become beautiful
if I want it to; and all you have to do is ask

I am a poet - and I always will be -

because I am far too much to be
anything else