Poetry Series: How I Become a Place; I, You, They, Us, We
By John Paul Caponigro
How I Become a Place
I eat my home.
I eat my yard.
I eat the place I live.
I put down roots by putting roots in me.
They say we replace the cells in our bodies every seven years.
That means this place has grown me many times over.
We鈥ve grown together.
I often travel far from home,
and so I take home with me.
Searching all five oceans and all seven continents,
I pass through them,
and they pass through me.
I鈥檓 one place becoming another
and many places becoming one.
I savor the places I meet,
not just fruit, not just fiber, also:
air, water, even dirt.
I鈥檓 always full and becoming fuller.
I crave intimacy with spaces, so
I consume them and
they consume me.
When I go, I take parts of places with me and
I leave parts of me with them:
my skin, my hair, my scent, my flora, my blood,
my breath, my words, my thoughts, my dreams.
I鈥檓 all these and they鈥檙e all theirs.
I become a part of them and
they become a part of me.
I can鈥檛 read their scriptures wholly, so I digest them.
To live more deeply in them, I put them in me.
Ashes to ashes,聽dust to dust, earth to earth.
I was, I am, I will be all these things.
What I鈥檝e taken out of them I鈥檒l return when I rest.
I commit the ground into my body before
I commit my body into the ground.
I, You, They, Us, We
Why must i capitalize i, when
i don鈥t capitalize you, or
they, or we, or us?聽 If
i had to capitalize just one of
these i鈥d choose We not i. Or
capitalize them all with
respect. Maybe it鈥s better
to capitalize none. With words we maintain
barriers built around ourselves and
the our world. It鈥s not that i want
you to be me or me to
be you. i love the differences. i鈥d
like to really know them; see
you and be seen by you 鈥斅 聽 聽 truly, hear
you and be heard fully, stop
building too many walls and build more
bridges to beautiful
me you we.
What would happen if we
only used we for
a day, a week, a month, or a year? My joys and
sorrows would be yours. Your joys and
sorrows would be mine. We鈥d
share a common past, present, and future. Our
time would be ours, not just
yours and not just mine. Imagine
what should could would happen if
we stopped calling it it and instead called it we and
really let each other the whole world us
in. That鈥檚 the future the present i
hope for. i鈥d like to give this
gift to you, to them, to us, to
we. Will you give this
gift to me, to us, to we?