Red Leopard

I am broken, a disheveled caricature
Of a fully functioning human.

I look like me.
I sound like me.
I wake each morning
And live each day.
I know less now
Than I did twenty years ago.
Through it all
I have gained a perspective.
I live in the half-light,
Half-shadow on a
Precarious plane
Expecting all to come
Sliding out from under me.
Perhaps I should go
Back to a simpler time
Where I was not marred
By doubt and misgivings.
Like a new, unsharpened pencil
Full of promise and potential
Unwavering in the intent
To realize a dream
Built upon a destiny
That is truth
If I only believed
In my right to be… me.