I will present you
 parts
 of
 my
 self
 slowly
 if you are patient and tender.
 I will open drawers
 that mostly stay closed
 and bring out places and people and things
 sounds and smells,
 loves and frustrations,
 hopes and sadnesses,
 bits and pieces of three decades of life
 that have been grabbed off
 in chunks
 and found lying in my hands.
 they have eaten
 their way into my memory,
 carved their way into
 my heart.
 altogether
 - you or i will never see them -
 they are me.
 if you regard them lightly,
 deny that they are important
 or worse, judge them
 i will quietly, slowly,
 begin to wrap them up,
 in small pieces of velvet,
 like worn silver and gold jewelry,
 tuck them away
 in a small wooden chest of drawers

 and close.