#fictional speaker

I caught you early,

still a tiny embryo.

  You’re not a person yet—you could be.

That’s what frightens me.

  You’re not even an acquaintance—

you’re a tenant in my body.

  The morbid idea of evicting you

makes me laugh.

  It’s the scared sort of laugh

for when you don't know what to say.

  I can’t see, hold,

or love you, yet.

  I couldn’t tell the difference

if you were gone,

  except the lifted weight