When did I give their voices
a key to my head
let them in
to tangle my thoughts
until I couldn’t recognize
who is who
tonight you lay in the dark
face sticky with crying and snot
I lay beside you
telling you
what they told me
to tell you
and when an hour later
I finally put on my housecoat
like you asked
and we went downstairs
you fell asleep
on my shoulder
so fast
with such relief
it was like you’d been holding up
a boulder
and I realized
the voices weren’t wrong
I was just wrong
to listen
I had been reading you
like a map
not allowing
for the possibility
that you are also
my guide.