A Gnat’s Shadow

Sometimes
You behave as if
You’re serving
a life sentence
for the crime of
being You.

No possibility of
parole, and
You’ve made
the rest of us
Your probation officers,

especially
the ones who
imagine
they are
assigned, or
deserve to be,
the assayers
of Your guilt
or innocence,

beginning with
Your parents,
then Your
teachers and
preachers and
bosses and
spouses,

as if they were
appointed by
some celestial
court of
last resort,

when, in fact,

Your Being
is made of
Light,

a Flame
that scorns
the Shame
that wrote Your
sentence

like a
butterfly
scorns
a gnat’s
shadow.

(Photo by Calvin Mano; UnSplash)