three words to describe
unicorns across generations
a faded quilt of faces
that You sewed me into
Her faithful student
we were all Your faithful students
that title became the bookends of all of our lives
it was paraded before our names were spoken
and those three words
were the preamble to all our epitaphs
because no light ever shone brighter than You
Her faithful student
we would live in a castle suite
and have a stairway of tomes
like a stream of dog-eared, yellow-paged bribes
that You sent us when we behaved
and i never did
like You wanted us to realize
we would never have an all-expenses-paid dream
of an all-you-can-indulge in life
if we were ever without You
Her faithful student
all the swirls and whirls
on that title sure looked fine
made to follow everything i hornwrote
like a shadow and a curse
of ivy over my identity
Her faithful student
we were collected from Your school
like the porcelain goat figures
with rosy cheeks
You lined on every mantelpiece
until we grew old
and had to come out from Your shadow
and lived our lives following tutelage
from its middle years to our ends
as footnotes
in a narrative all about You
Her faithful student
i did not know that when i first became
clay in Your hooves
and even if i had
i would have been too stubborn to refuse You
insisting that all i learned of growing in Your shade
was wrong
even if i said it to myself
because i wanted
to be different for You
from all the others
You know what i told You
and that i would use wings to get it
if only so i could be closer
to what You refused to let me have
we all started as a line of candles
a scent by one name
and i wanted to be different
from all the others
for You
to You
so that i and they
would never become we
so that i would never join them
when i learned how they faded