paper and I speak

paperthick is my mind

heavy words stacked 
on a thinning book spine

I am to be tried, 
an acquired disquiet 

I am a home for strangers, 
an adversarial friend-- 
not in the realm of fights 
but I will make you look 
at yourself for what you are: a greater being than you believed in

it takes gall to drink a mirror, 
a little sting to sit with me just long enough 
that you begin to understand: 

the exhaustion of identity 
is lighter than the laugh of pretense