I’ve already been
the orchid pollinated by deceit
the honest hibiscus hiding her own beauty at nights
the wild passion fruit offering her perfumed hands to passers by
the boiled pineapple peel that reduces the inflammation of your ego
the guava jam self-preserved from you
I’ve already been
the imprisoned servant
a teacher who mispronounces the words she attempts to teach
a mother making mistakes to avoid the mistakes her own mother made
a translator of your emotions and a clerk archiving the reports of your failures
an unseen ghost wandering the poetry venues of this city
I’ve already been
the harden soil marked by all the boots going down Grand Canyon
the wind combing the bison’s fur in the Plains
the tree bark in the jungle hosting orchids and bromeliads
the sunset in the Caribbean resting on your skin
the moonrise in Los Angeles without you
I’ve already been
a two-inch long yellow ant
a cockatoo standing on the edge of a balcony in Caracas
a ‘possum rejected for clinging too tight to the tree it climbed
a great blue heron with a broken wing after a tornado
a woman birthing herself into a trail