Spiral Down Staircase

Weirdly good at breaking down,
been doing it since I was seven-
teen, been needing
to since I was

three, been needing to
take my time doing it, been
needing to
honor other people’s

process, been proving over and
over again how many turning 
points a life
can have, been learning more

and more how big each one still
is, been seeing
time enough that they will
never stop

coming, been learning
that if each right
angle keeps me
turning in a

circle, necessarily, 
the original
track must not have
been so bad.

first published in Dulcet Literary Magazine