Be Your Own Story

 

Recognize that mask

you wear disguising

despair    defining

your life

the “fake it

til you make it”

smile shows

heart    courage

trying to break

 through

yet you are not

in your own story

Life a foreign

language never

to be learned

tongue can’t wrap

around syllable

sounds like music

forced unwillingly

into mouth.

 

Invisible

inside the mirror

essential self

not seen

 no recognition

no history behind

unknown face

Owl Shadow

Owl Shadow

 

 

Standing on porch

Owl flew overhead

shadow missing me

by inches

 

Native lore

calls her

harbinger of death

 

Chicano stories

make her

familiar of witches

 

But when I turn

pages of my own

history she is

Wisdom

able to see

in all directions

 

In all

Owl is magical

and her shadow

nearly touched

me