Being Human

I push a clanky cart

through fluorescent aisles

among 

poverty-skinned shoppers

the noise sucking at me

I close my eyes

a moment

to flood the frontal cortex

to gather back my soul

a whisper "why am I here?"

The illusive mirror warps

the veil I haven't seen thins 

a crones lips

purse and point toward

a shimmer of  lace 

intertwining life paths 

an illuminated 

pattern 

spun out before me

a celestial weav of

each life I have

born into here

Each person 

I love, I fear, 

was with me then

in another form

the roles switched up

the gender 

unspeakably familiar

I am a black man

bent and muscled

with a muslin bag

brushing the cotton

I pick 

with blistered fingers

I am a german jewish boy

limp with hunger

shaved and slumped in line

at the building with

ash blowing out 

it falls like snow onto

my flayed face

I am a corseted tart 

with parasol and gentlemen

to sway over

my ridiculous curls

they bob with coquettish 

nods of my head

expands

beyond the earth

I see my mothers

my sister, my fathers

a blue light that breaks

my heart

emerges

into each incarnation

a purpose that hums

my ears thrill to a sound

of ice breaking

a mother shrieks at

the child climbing 

cereal box shelves

I am in a store

I push a clanky cart