I Know
I know how much faith can be lost
that you can die
without any ink ever spilled
in your name
i know some things you just cannot come back from
i know that the brink has many ledges
to stand and fall off of
head first, like your birth into this world
i know forgiveness
is the face in the mirror
that looks away
i know where you’re calling from
that payphone by the highway that they took out years ago
i know if you’ve never made bail
you don’t really know what uncertainty is like
i know saying i’m powerless in a room full of strangers doesn’t make it so
how no alley way is only shadows but what those shadows represent
that the stuffing can be pulled out of you so young
you are this things they have no name for
missing buttons, chewed off paw
and a smile that masks a lot of darkness
i know.
About the Poet: James Diaz is the founding editor of the literary arts & music journal Anti-Heroin Chic http://heroinchic.weebly.com/. His poems can be found in Quail Bell Magazine, HIV Here & Now, Foliate Oak and Ditch. His debut book of poems, This Someone I Call Stranger, is forthcoming from Indolent Books (2018).
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