to my father.

A Poem by Reece Butler

hyphenating.

It is my birthright to belong to someone else. From the second I was conceived I became of something. You do not know me by me, but rather that which associates itself with my being. I am inescapably connected to someone, somewhere, something. The least you can give me is that which I did not choose preserved by the separation from a new master's ownership by a tiny, horizontal line.