I Wrote (A Rough Draft)

l wrote

my first creature

at 12

 

When I did not

know enough

of the world

except that

it is sad

 

I drafted

a lone protozoan

transparent

and a curled tail

 

At sixteen

my teenage angst

found fruition

in a modern

fairy tale

 

It burrowed

into a

high school

literary magazine

 

A den

in a forest of

other creatures

 

It was a small

ecosystem

a big fish

and all that

 

A few years later

I made a monstrous thing

with the help of

a exterminator named Burroughs

 

It was an ugly thing

taped together

with bits and pieces of

words I had found and liked

 

It lived

and then died too soon

in someone else’s yard

printed on copy paper

 

Then, when I had

Found a source of income

To fund my efforts

I began experimenting

On my own

 

But then age

Had aged me

Had aged my perspective

Had aged my thoughts, words,

The way I put together

My animals

 

I made

Daring moves

That made sense

And the creatures

Were obscured

By sophisticated thoughts

 

And then

I gave up

Left creation to others

More suited to the cause

And concentrated on other pursuits

 

But then

The seed germinated within me

 

I revived an old creature

Gave it life

But it died on the vine

 

But it gave me hope

And I started making more creatures

Looking not at the end thing

But the process

 

And here I am

Okay with creatures

Some finished,

Others not so

But at peace with the process.