Concrete Tales

Knees scraping concrete
Late bloomer
Learned to walk past the
Sidewalk chalk
By-passed crawling
Scooting along
Until my legs
Gained their strength
Hid my stumbles
From the audience
Closest to me
Kept the rock hidden
In my thenar eminence
Tucked my hand around it
Called it my own
The grain of sand
Blood dripping to the ground
Kept walking
Despite all the talking
Perfect
Perfect
Steps
Until I stumbled
Again
And again
Push
Pull
Took its toll
So I decided to roll
Warm concrete
Baking in the sun
I stopped for a moment
Scrapes along the way
Slowly healing
Feeling
Concrete
No longer concealing
Or paving over
Now it's part of the path.