Ten Weeks Long

in a very different
Mexico City now
from the one she and I shared

am I becoming angrier
as angry as she is

rhythm of life in this city
its demands, requiring
that you adapt, toughen up

am I being changed
having the city to face myself
head on, come what may

without her to go about with
hand-in-hand

without her to lead and to guide me
without her, like Moses,
to open the way, the ways,
the passages, the passage ways

without her to provide,
in addition, that narrow passage,
the candy of it, the candy that it is

or the wrapper that it is
to wrap, so very well,
the length of my hard, dark
chocolate

no longer entertaining
eyes, asses, shocked
at what they consider to be
difference that is extreme

let them look in delight or disgust
or whatever or however

I am abandoning
meeting their gaze, these gazes

abandoning trying to read
what this difference
of mine means

they are as different from me
as I am from them

let them process me
however they please

it is Monday
this is a new week
I must be strong


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2012
4:08 p.m. 09.01.12