A Letter to My Son

son, the lines in your palms
have gotten you this far
and the map in your heart
will take you farther

be safe on your journeys to a new land
where you can....

BE

you
no impositions of definitions
except the ones you choose. you said,

"ma, life is all around you"
and i didn't believe it because for so long
I lived amongst the white walls
white white white walls
white faces that told me:
depend on masks, hair, and bras to up lift
what ever I wasn't
and hide whatever I was

how can i see life, if someone is looking at me to look at myself?
i had no agency, silenced
by their objects yet wearing it
to make myself MORE
of an object
like collecting baseball cards for a collection
i sat on their shelves, in their possessions

until i met you, my son
whose beauty reflects off of me
when i see
how grown you get
just from having colors
of imagination paint depth

and finally from your cries,
i could breathe out
whatever i held in,
at birth

i heard life
and saw life
and kissed life
and made life

aren't you proud of your mother?
despite what they made up,
she made out what was natural to her.

so my sweet son,
you came from a line
of instinct and just follow
what is natural to you.