Perception

Because she'd single out my best
traits and laugh at my worst tics,
rearranging knick-knacks on my desk
to watch me shuffle each book or pen
back to predetermined spaces--

Because it didn't take a year
for her to catch me in a lie,
unfasten the windswept coffer where
emotions blur and age, away
from liberation's blinding light--

Because she never knew my father
and yet she saw his rage building
in me and spat in its legacy--

I knew she had me figured out
and understood me better than
I understood myself.