Noelle Kocot: "Pride"

If I claim I was a terrible, horrible,

Evil no-good person,

It would be a lie, and it would be

Wanting always to be the best or the worst.

So now I’m destined to wander,

My bag full of pride a lot lighter,

And if I say I am done

With whatever ails me,

That would also be a lie.

I am not done, will never be done

Till the day I die,

But I am content to be human,

Naked and shaking with love

At the moment, and the next moment,

I just can’t say.

"Pride" by Noelle Kocot. Text as published in Forklift Ohio (Summer, 2012).

Thanks to Mark Palinski for suggesting this poem.

Art credit: "Lonely girl with suitcase at country road," photograph by massonforstock.