What I Am: A Poem By Lauren King

I am ground,

Foundation,

Soil.

I nurture,

Soap like sponge,

Grow things.

I am mixture of clay,

Sand,

And stone.

Both soft and hard,

Gritty,

Sticky,

Falling apart.

I am plant,

Small and tender,

Tall and lush.

Always growing or being plucked.

Replanted,

Blooming,

Gone to seed,

Never fully grown,

Always needing sun,

Soil,

Water,

Air,

Space.

I am wind,

Changing direction,

Changing speed,

Coming and going as I am called to be.

Knowing not from whence I came or to whence I go.

Yet confident still that I will be.

I am water,

Simple,

Complex and fluid at the same time.

Flowing and still,

Cool,

Refreshing,

Stagnant.

I give life and take it.

I am wanted,

Needed,

Endured.

I am sun,

Bright,

Blinding,

Sweltering heat.

Fuel to some,

Withering others.

Loved and hated at various times.

Rising and setting all at once.

I am fire,

Natural and man-made,

Intentional and not.

Illuminating,

Consuming,

Flickering and burning out.

Smoldering embers waiting to reignite.

I am element,

Fragment,

Singular,

Plural,

Whole.

I am fact,

Fiction and mystery.

I am nothing and everything bound together.

I am the universe folded up.