poem

you didn't know did you,
how to speak of knowing
or feeling when you just
did, letting questions flake
off with scales and skin.
i've watched you slither.
you thought no one was
looking. you move like me,
sure, every moment less
certain. your faltering comes
with age, until the last stumble
when you wonder, if there's
time, what's left unshamed.
you've hated yourself all
along. perhaps hope will
dissolve the mountain of
words cemented to your
back, but that's just another
word. reach up, stupid.
forget what you hear.
forget this poem.