palimpsest

I'm a palimpsest
of all the things I've ever been,
ever seen, thought, heard and felt,
everything I've ever ingested
and even the things I've spat out
remain layered somewhere within the folds of me

I'm a walking archive of my own personal history,
an allusion to the fragments of the history of me
that has collided with every other person,
place, being, space
I've ever inhabited,
clashed with, found harmony in,
been confused by -

there's a flicker of me
in every person
whose eyes I've ever met

whether I've traversed their insides or not.
My footprints are in the dust of every city
I've ever held underneath my feet;
in every river I've swum in
the smell of my skin
permeates the water.

I am a palimpsest of my own experience of the world
and the world is a palimpsest
of me and all the others
that've been here
and left their bones
in the vast, beautiful graveyard
that is this planet.
We're all decomposing here, leaving
tiny pieces of ourselves
around the place
hoping someone will glance the glimmers
and remember
us ...

I'm a living document of my own life
and I want to be read
I want someone to study me
and meld their words with mine

I want to write an extraordinary story.