After years in the cycle of being seriated and then sown again,
broken to mend other fraying parts
before they came entirely unspooled,
I existed in the shadow of my memory of
the girl in the mirror.
Because she was not permitted to reflect a smile back
from irises of others,
She used her teeth to hollow out my bones,
and took shelter there, waiting.
When I was seen,
by the man who taught high school Spanish
I was beginning to wake up, in my osteogenic bones
not yet realizing,
When that teacher,
an all too patient guy came in
time seared a little bit more that reflection into me
and these bones begin to glow, as she smiled
