I AM IN HERE

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I am in here.

Hidden behind 
layers of  paint 
the pentimento 
of this poem
still longing to be seen

I am in here.

A message in a bottle
cast into the very same sea
That I used to swim in
uncorked
Like a pliant pollywog
In between 
My father’s patient bowed legs
At the salty,
Shell-slathered edges of a once upon a time
Atlantic shoreline.

I am in here.

Sending out signals
drawing hieroglyphics 
writing in the mystical code of
The carefully selected word
Which are like doe-eyed dogs
In a kennel 
who speak in 
the universal sign language of 
The desperately waving tail
Aching to be loved.
and pleading to be taken home.

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