-I could have been brilliant, perhaps,
if I had been born during the solstice
of a different moon, if
my mother had not been plagued
by the thought of aborting me-
unable to face another miscarriage,
if my father had been sober-
when they decided to try again,
if all ties with the ethereal
had been severed-
when I was placed in human flesh,
if I didn’t yearn for what I was-
when I was born,
if the catastrophes of life
were swept away-undone.
I could have been brilliant, if
I was meant to be just that,
if the jagged pieces of my experience
ever managed to fit,
if the sparse ephemeral moments
could be stretched,
if I could stare at the broken glass
and not wince at the reflection,
if I could see beyond the fractures-
perhaps, fill them in,
if I could breathe in deeply
and know that this is life.
I could have been brilliant-
if I was someone else.
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