Inside

I am wrought from befores and afters

I am a shape unknown to me

I am burning and furious
an ember upon the wind

I have known nothing and will know nothing

I am a passion and a collection

I am a story
or perhaps a self-propagating myth

I am a thousand lights
and ten thousand words

I am swept away by beauty
carried upon a wave of pain

I am an accumulation of defeats and victories
both known and unknown

I am a history composed of histories

I am a labor who labors

I am kin to kindness
stymied by malice

I am a jacket of regrets buttoned by hopes

And I am a memory bearing memories

I am me and nothing more.