Testimony

Bad gravity
swallowed me.

Haphazardry
tore my circuitry

and suddenly
nothing propelled me.



A shadow covered my mind.
Dull, mapless,
with a cracked compass,

I meekly tried to find
what I thought I’d lost
—a groping ghost

whose clues
were flashes of dignity
in more than a flickering few:

a courageous sanity
of human decency
that inescapably knew

that she is me
and I am him:
a mirror to model myself in.



Friends, I hate to admit
that I almost tried to quit,

almost stopped striving to be
more than merely me,

almost bowed to fear
and wished to disappear.



I’m still here.



.