I Didn’t Ask for Directions

I hear you,
On the periphery of my conscience
Speaking, but I’ll admit

I glazed over, while watching
The squirrels outside, fighting over nothing
Chasing tails, attached to the moment…

Observing them in silent amusement
As your words fell out
Over me in heaps and heaps
Of attempts at making sense

Out of me

You should have given up long ago
Because I do not comprehend
The language you judge with

I will never see
Out of the glasses you look through

Then I smile, and you ask me
Why, and I remember —
The choice was never yours

To make, nor mine to explain
The answers were planted
Long before you, and me

And this tree they run around
And I think, I think…

With everything I am
All you taught me to be
All the rest I learn while being silent
Reteaching myself how to listen

How to live while I’m playing
How to love like I’m dying
How to lose like I’m winning

It’s about time I left behind
The home of your validation
I’d much rather live without walls

I already own a compass