faces squished into frame
requisite smiles mustered
in spite
of acts
this happy togetherness
is the stuff
nostalgia is made up (of)
can you wait 5 minutes?
(my question)
do you think (?) she deserves it?
(his question/answer)
at 27 i am suddenly grateful
for my little brother
re(te)aching the best response
= laughter
with humour
absurdity is tolerable
but at what/whose expense
(time, energy, money, expectation, love, fear, resentment)?
today in the shower
i wore just my birthday suit
after a decade (and a tad)
of navel adornment
for the first time in 3655 days
(except that one bromoil photo shoot)
i cho(o)se to remain naked
beneath my clothes
counting full circles
opening, bending, stretching
overlapping past venn
to concentricity
and i like my belly
just the way it is now
with its little hole
erasing its own emptiness
trying to fill myself
from the inside
crowding out the need
to insert foreign objects/people/gods
this time i have a home
in toronto to return to(o)
a door/a bed/warmth
a'waiting (me)
i know it all
is in my mind
that sense
of be-longing
and yet
i preminisce
internal and external
journey-destinations
to find the elusive
it
ever-moving
forward and back
« return.