scene of the crime

We don’t get to choose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.

Kami Garcia                                                                                                                                      




on a drab winter day
with the sky and the earth
the colour of ash,
I returned with the boy
to the scene of the crime,
the house where we lived
when we came to this world,

and he told me, 
this is the place
where I learned
I was not liked
for the boy that I was,
this is the place
where I learned how to be
not me,
this is the place
where I was left
alone
to grow
alone,
this is the place
where I put all my hope
in a small dark space
safe from their eyes
to shine just for me,

then he turned from the scene
and said,
you see?

and I said that I did,
that I know all we need,

and for the second time
in so many years,
he smiled.