Be the Change

“Be the change
you want to see in the world.”

I tried to live by that.
I began to disappear.

Can it be, I said,
that I am not to be

in the changed world?
I could not bear the thought

so I backed out of being
the change, and of the wanting

as well.  It all felt just swell:
the birds, the television, the bed

I loved as much as homeland
and heritage all took me back,

said they’d been waiting for me.
Solid enough — but soon enough

I found myself flickering.
What’s this, I cried, I don’t want

to change and I’m not being
the change!  Someone else

must be stronger.  Maybe
I’ll meet them in the new world

if I end up there someday
but for now I cower, see the mirror

filling with flowers.  I put a finger on the glass
and a violet came and met it with half an inch between

my flesh and its petals.  I don’t want this —
but I must say it is a perfect shade of blue.