#978 2-3x/day

i never
asked my girl to scrawl on little slips scraps of paper
i never
asked her to stuff them in the suggestion box that is my pumping heart
i never
asked her to see the best in me
i never

i never
but she did
like my grade 12 mathematics teacher, only on a bigger scale
my girl saw what i was capable of
saw that the person inside was bigger
than my body showed

i never
been so afraid of nothing
i mean
my girl rewrote my dictionary
omitted words like can't, like impossible, and phrases like, yeah maybe tomorrow
she turned days, into possibilities
gandhi's words about world change, into reality
and silence, into comfort

and me i
realizing that being good is hard but, being great is harder
and me i
afraid of failing her and me
and me i
walk through fear like an elephant who lived youth in the wild, walks through chains

and me i
still discovering the me that she see, when she see me
when i brush my teeth in the mirror
and me i
using that mental dental time to do what the me staring back be doing
we both be reflecting
on me
(and avoiding cavity)