self-definition

self-definition

you are not your past
or your future
or anything that anyone else for any reason would
define you as.

you are as you are.
complicated, perhaps,
but not like God, unknowable.
and certainly, you are worthy of love
and trust and respect,
words used like counterfeit
Monopoly money,
not even fit to play games with
in the hands of the dishonest
friend or suitor.
words used to manipulate
and to tell you not what you are
but what others see through the filters
of their bruised and blackened hearts.
blind eyes telling you
which way to walk and how fast
and when to stop to keep from harm.

you are not a label
or an ethnicity
or the products you use to clean your house
or wash your hair.

you are who you know you are
and who you want to be
and the ten thousand paces between those
two points in space and time.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

for "Just Jaz".

Plan is to podcast tonight.