“i who will not recognize i” by A

sometimes, provoked by a passerby, or a song, or a piece of writing 

i simultaneously create and mourn over a version of myself

that never has and perhaps never will exist 

somehow through every experience

both lived and unlived 

i have been sculpted into this form that i know as myself 

and although through those same means 

i will continue to be molded into a new shape

into someone that shares my name and face 

and whose eyes i will see through 

but whose mind this version of me will not recognize 

we will still be left to mourn the unknown once again 

A