i know
too many poets
scholars
healers
movement leaders
& folx who
speak
slowly
for me
to be still
stumbling
like
this.

just lmk
how do i be
wise? how
do i look
back & not
feel
like i’ve been
coasting
thru life
missing
all the
boats?

bruh
do u
realize
it’s been
exactly
a decade since
u started doing
tai
chi?

bruh
do u
realize
it’s been
almost
a decade since
u abandoned
tai
chi?

do u
remember
how the aunties
at
hester park
without much
emotion & with
plenty of matter
-of-fact told
u u
weren’t the first or
the last young
one to start this
habit and
then break
it? & how
u were like
nah
not me. & how
u broke
it anyway?

do u
remember
walking thru
pell in the rain and
being led up
-stairs to the
ballroom studio and
before u even knew how
to breathe right u
already figured u’d
be the
one to pass this
to the next
generation? later that
afternoon u
strolled to sheng’s
and said
bruh
i’m bout to be hella
wise & then u
watched the cloud
exit the
window from your
nostrils.

if i told u
that
wisdom is
forgiving urself
for all the times u
could’ve been but
weren’t would
u say i
was just making
excuses? or
would
u say i
was just making
excuses. & then
forgive
me anyway?

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