Fable

once upon a time
there was a whole young boy
who learned himself by halves
at first he was complete
then he learned early
how to be carved into halves
by his folks and others
who told him
he was half indian and half
whatever you call the rest
or half native and
half whatever you call the rest
as he got older he called himself
half Mescalero and
half Italian but that got confusing
so he called himself
half NDN and
half White-eyes and
then he learned he was bipolar
or rather his biology told him
or rather he found out via dull knife and
valium
in a glass with ginger ale
a green glass with bubbles on the side and
within and
that didn’t work
he went to Italy and New Mexico and
that didn’t work
so he went to work and
he was
half a training specialist and
half a poet
then went on the road as
half an independent contractor and
half a poet
then took a job somewhere and
started to fail
until the strokes
he called
the Happenings in his brain
Happened and
now he is whole again
although somewhat completely diminished
no halves to reconcile
not native not white just old and
failing steadily
just losing weight and
then
with one half hearted wave of his good right hand
saying to the vanishing masses
no longer coming to visit
go and
choke on
your wholeness and
live whole and
happily ever after

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T