who i am

I will present you
parts of myself
slowly
if you are patient and tender.
I will open drawers that mostly stay closed
and bring out places and people and things
sounds and smells, loves and frustrations,
hopes and sadnesses, bits and pieces
of three decades of life
that have been grabbed off in chunks
and found lying in my hands.
they have eaten their way into my memory,
carved their way intomy heart.
altogether- you or i will never see them
-they are me.
if you regard them lightly,
deny that they are important
or worse, judge them
i will quietly, slowly, begin to wrap them up,
in small pieces of velvet,
like worn silver and gold jewelry,
tuck them away in a small wooden chest of drawers
and close.

~John T. Wood