I am

Not a statistic

Not a number

Not a test score

Not an ethnicity

Not a ranking

 

I am

Not a sick day

Not a stumbling step

Not a sputtered word

Not a missed opportunity

Not a failed attempt

 

I am

Not my faults

Not my struggles

Not my mistakes

 

I am clarity

A funhouse mirror bending the world to my rare perception

The little pricks of light filtered between the blinds

The cloth wiping smudges from old glasses

 

I am

A swimmer’s first breath after a race

A writer’s final period after three-hundred pages

A student’s closing of a test booklet

 

I am a thousand ends and a million beginnings

I am every opportunity I am given

Every word I speak

Every person I meet

Every drop of sweat

 

Who I am extends beyond a number, a word, a dictionary entry

I am every book in the library

Every zero in the code

Every molecule in the air

 

I am a world in and of myself

A galaxy bottled inside delicate flesh

A novel in each drop of blood

I contain infinities.