Next time we meet,
You won't know my face,
Or trust my strained and tortured voice,
Watch from the corners of your eyes,
Like I'm rabbid dog untrustworthy.

Keep me at a distance,
I'll put you out of your way,
A rotten cloud of mustard gas,
I'm yellow and carried,
The same man but greasy.

Approach with apprehension,
Call out the name you were expecting,
It comes out a question, not like family,
To a crocodile, crooked and scaley,
Not the man you want me to be.

Unpeeling an onion,
My ugliness is slowly healing,
Rehydrate my inner self,
Watch as my skin fumbles back around me,
A scab on your beautiful memory.

Climbing taller,
Just like a weed,
I'm too coarse to love,
And I've come too far to turn away.

Sisters and mother part,
Step forward humble patriarch,
Distances collapsed,
No longer a world apart,
Embrace me and all my flaws.