I am a 7-year-old poet,
and a 26-year-old human
but often it feels as if
the poet
has the more experience,
the more to say
and the better ways to say it
whereas the human
lags so far behind
she barely understands
the poet’s way of thinking.
She is merely the medium
from time to time
and an ambivalent one
torn between the poetry
and other pursuits.
But the poet is stronger
and speaks more convincingly
and keeps dragging her back –
if nothing else works
waking her in her sleep
with nightmares
of endless books
demanding to be written;
making her fear
that if she doesn’t write the stories now
she might never get to
and they would disappear.
—