I Am Poetry

I am pen to paper
Illustrating metaphors
I am the barely dry ink
before the pen meets paper again

I move about your body
As blood carries me like oxygen
to your mind
My journey from mind to hand
then exiting from your mouth

I am the alarm that wakes you
in the middle of the night
with haunting images from
someone else's dreams

I am your wild heart
beating rapidly
thump thump thumping reminders
for you to stop - and think

I am the Asian monk riding the subway
the child staring back at you
the sharp, shrieking, sirens of the ambulance
in your neighborhood

I am pain
the pain in your joints
reminding you that time is a concept
you haven't quite figured out yet

I am the sun reminding you to work
the moon reminding you to sleep
the image you hide from as you
race passed the mirror

I am every gray hair
every wrinkle
every flaw

I am page after page
in your journal
the unfinished business on your desk
the neglected alarm when you hit snooze

I am the thing you just remembered that you forgot
the empty promise of writing it down
from flicker, to flame to wild fire
Burning you from within

I
am
poetry