I trip

I fall

I skin my knees

I cry the tears

Of a hungry gull

I am picked up

I am fed

Rocked with natural nurtured words

Cooing and soothing

The maternal words

Calming my fractured sounds

And I feel safe

And I am held

A mother’s wings surround me

 

I skip

I trip

I fall

Over words

Empty headed curses

Cheers and jeers breathed over me

Words that in my distress I own

In my loss of face

My loss of value and belief

fear creeps in

To take the place

Where love and affirmation

Once lived

And I try to lick my wounds

In that cold dark and lonely place

Because I am not one of them

Those

that tribe of others

 

and in that place

I trip

I fall

Over someone else

Like me

And we stand

We hold each other up

Together we walk  

We tramp

We stalk the streets

Of troubled days and nights

until we trip and fall

and we come upon another

just like us

we three with skinned knees

and blooded hearts

we pick each other up

we address each other’s wounds

 

we rise we walk

and our faces shine

and we look into

the light

and for the first time in an age

we feel the warmth

and she

and he

and I

and them

even though we are different

we are not alone

as others emerge from the shadows

we are as one

and one is one

with you and them

and me