BAD – Poem

You're BAD, Mama said

I wouldn't be left alone with you.

Silently you crept

Under hems of fabric

And alighted, with your hairy hands

On unsuspecting dreams.

These things I knew not, of course

For you were tamed, long ago

q.d. and q.h.s.

Into a silent, placid, velvety creature

Toothless, munching only air.

And so what she said

Seemed faraway

The kicks and heavy beatings

Filed, locked away

With the smell of mothballs.

Until I met people like you

Stripes parallel but different

Fluttering to fly, straining against

Cuffs that held them

From crashing into the ceiling.

Were you once like that?

Tossing, morphing in the summer night

Spreading your mind for the first time –

Big, wild eyes

That stunned even the shadows.

You were invincible, the wind carried you,

Wings spanning more than you knew.

In enlightened frenzy

You reached for the sun

Dazzled, you fell

Right back to where

You belonged.

You mumbled apologies

Again and again

Soft powdery footprints

Receding into the dark

Folding yourself

Back into your original cocoon.

She almost forgave you then

The threats, the blade

Of your sharpened breath

The constant check

On what lurked in wardrobes

Looking over

A shoulder too high

She handed you over

They wrapped you up

You spun, they blurred

Till you were still, ready

For change

Into true, vivid colours.

Breaking through, you found

With dismay, the same

Old patterns, dark, dull –

Doomed.

Never affirmed, never adored

You were one in a long cycle.

Where does the worm end

And the man begin?

Which part was bad, and which

Was you –

The Grandpa

I never knew?