"Leave it better than you found it,"

he said

He has so many lines like that

Words to live by

And for awhile

Everything he said seemed like

A provocation

An argument waiting

Like we couldn't just have a conversation

Without me getting defensive

Like it was an evaluation

And I was failing

So I started railing against the lines

And everything he said

Seemed ready for a battle

But while he stayed calm

I just wanted to rattle him and see if

Something

Anything

Shook loose

I moved away like I was making a jailbreak

And held myself up to images

I knew were fake

Just to see what I was made of

And it didn't take long

To bend identity and watch it break

For goodness sake

Rebirth happened slowly

But we have to start somewhere

And before I knew it

There I was

In front of all these people

Repeating his lines

His words

My voice

Like it was ever a choice