< h2>First Day
Robert Arthur Reeves
It means being willing to learn
that everything you call your personality,
your life, is a Mardi Gras mask
with feathers blocking the eyeslits,
that all your values are mudbanks
of trenches prone to wet weather,
that blood rolls into the face
without warning, and makes it a strange face
peppered on slipping skies.
Your name cringes
to hear itself spoken.
Lust’s raps on you have echoes
and you learn you’re only as mighty
as an opening gate.