I do not believe
in fresh starts. and yet,
I’ve read that skin cells regenerate
every twenty-eight days, that
you get new intestines
every forty-eight hours and
it takes twenty years for a
new heart. I’ve read that, in half a
lifetime, you can be a completely
new self.

I do not believe in fresh
starts, because memories do not
pile like lost dust in the corners of
my room, because words exchanged
do not split and reform and
fall away. my body is not the
one I was born with and yet
my thoughts are not forgotten.

I do not believe in
fresh starts, but I will clean
every dead cell from my self,
I will dust out my halls and burn
up my past, and I will try
again.