I write about grammar because
These rules
Are how we come to understand
One another
I write about grammar because
This inescapable edifice
Tries to
Define us
I write about grammar because
This language
Makes demands of us
Lashes out with contempt
I write about grammar because
We swim in it
Every day
I write about grammar because
Sometimes there are
Things that need to be said
That cannot be
Borne
Alone
I write about grammar because
I thought making myself
Small enough
To fit
Inside their rhetoric
Was a way to survive
I write about grammar because
Even our imagination
Is bound up in sentences
That tell us who we can be
And how we should love
I write about grammar because
Our dreaming
Is at risk
Of being diagrammed
Right out of existence
I write about grammar because
Poetry has reminded me
That the power to break free
Lies
Hidden
Within the very structure
Of the rules themselves
I write about grammar because
I don’t know how else
To explain
How hard it can be
To choose Life
I write about grammar because
It’s still too easy
To believe them
When they tell me I shouldn’t exist
I write about grammar because
I am still here to tell the tale
And so many others are not.
Full stop.
I write about grammar because
I want to Live
In a world
That holds more possibilities
I write about grammar because
I want to Feel
Something more
Than the nothingness I became
I write about grammar because
I want
To be free
Enough
To open my mouth again
And taste
The sounds
Of something new
I write about grammar because
I need to remember
Because I need to
I need to
Because I need to remember
Me
Because I deserve to have
All of me
In my own words
Not just the crumbs
Someone left behind
Because I am fighting
To unleash
All the strength that is
In me
I write about grammar
Because I am working
Stretching myself out
Into the potential
That dances
Out loud
In this crevice
Between
What already is
And what we can’t yet say
I write about grammar because
There are so many more stories
Needing to be told
Where people are just people
Unbound
And we don’t have so much to fear
© 2016 Chris Paige. All rights reserved.
To Be OtherWise 