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free verse/text

i am home at my mothers in the town i grew up

i look myself in the mirror tonight

and i am a boy.

29 years of pain

is suddenly replaced by the face i see looking back at me

with a golden glimmer in his childhood eye

laughing like no years have passed

like he has always been there in my face, being my face

the part of me i kept hidden

and disguised

is there breathing excitedly because he never grew old like I did

he has been hidden so deep he's been protected from life

unscathed

so he forgives me for how i have denied him his freedom

tonight for the first time

coming out now

in my eyes

i'm coming out now in my eyes