Poetry: Angels I know

Image via Unsplash

Angels I know

Each page of each chapter

Dog-eared, to mark

In all of my phases

From light to dark

I’ve met such angels

Ones that saved me

And ones that embraced me

And ones that held a mirror up

So then I could truly face me

And from the corner street interaction,

To joining sides like a faction,

To fighting for what is right

To indulging in substances

Staying up all night

To being casted out

To being reeled back in

To having a home

But, no walls to live in

I met God right before I was born

They said ”This isn’t your home,

And this isn’t your family.”

You’ll find them though

In the faces of many

Even when it feels like just a few

Your family will be chosen

Chosen for you and by you.

So I thank myself, and all of my goings

For something sacred is to say

For the threshold of divine knowing

Somehow, some way, somewhere

Someone was always right there

Even if not in front of me

But a call away, a memory to unlock

Of how you saved me with just “one talk”

People come and go and go and go

But, some of those people

Are the angels I know.

This poem is dedicated to the only family I know. The ones that let little me keep shelter and safety in their home. The ones in college that joined me where I roamed. The ones who indulged in the high and the drunk. The ones who pulled me out of whatever funk. The ones who enabled me in my darkest hours, the ones that brought me in homeless, just to shower. The ones who held a mirror to my face, so I could taste my destruction. The ones who dressed me when I couldn’t function. The ones who showed up. The ones who backed down. The ones who are still here, popping in and out.

I’m going somewhere, and its only because of the angels I know.