Witness

I lived on top of the roof, staring at the Jehovah’s Witness

turrets. I lived making up metaphors about the moon

while Bobby balanced a boombox above his shoulders

and squirrels shyly swallowed the spiked heads

of passionflowers, pilfering grape tomatoes and averting

my gaze. I watched the other girls and made notes of

how to be more like that, how to wear a shirt that hangs off

the left shoulder, how to align my body with everything

I've ever wanted. I loved when, at the wine store,

it turned out they already had my name in the system.

It’s true there are so many versions of a self,

sometimes one forgets how to walk like the other.

In swimmy reflections or in glasses clean, I watched myself

enjoy being seen, witnessed my evolution into

loud-laughing, cross-legged, can you play the song that

reminds us all where we have been? Inside me is a girl opening

a red locker, unable to envision so many glistening eyes

listening when she opens her mouth. Here I am

with my hair up, socked foot on your leg. Falling

in love again. Let’s toast to pizza. Let’s order the moon!

With you at last I climb down from my watchtower

and step into the whitelit present tense.