self

When I walk down a busy street -
I am amongst many
a statistic
a somebody
but to each somebody
a nobody.


When I read -
I am the words
the pages
absorbed into my mind
the thoughts and reflections of the narrator
a character
I am someone I am not.


When I write -
I am the ink
I am scratched onto the page
permanent but selective
unanswered questions
and only inscrutable shapes for answers
I am myself
but only a part of myself
I am two dimensional like paper.


When I sleep -
I am the pictures of my sub-conscious
the farcical images which appear in my head
I am whoever I want to be
yet without control over my entity
a person invented by myself involuntarily.


When I listen to music -
I am the words and the sounds
the rhythms which pulse through me
I am insides writhing
I am a voice without a voice
I am who the musicians want me to be
a puppet
for a short time
and then I am gone.


When I dance -
I am energy
I am clarity
in the centre of my forehead
my chest
my arms and my veins
I am moulded to the music
hidden in its folds
standing out as vividly as red silk
I am the storyteller
I am the arch of my back
the fall of my shoulders
the twisting and turning of my ribs
I am the weightlessness of levitation
I am raw
human flesh
exposed for anyone who watches
I am the influence of my predecessors
and the beckoning to those whose feet will trace mine.
I am everything.
In a time when everything seems nothing
I am confidence
sophistication
and certainty
I am a rarity where words fail to suffice and
strange kinetics take over
I am not me but
I am as close to me as I know.