Same door, same hall, same turn of the key One step in, the angle shifts out of true Table legs square to the lines in the floor I set them back, they drift once more Shoulder to the frame, I know this route But the width I trusted leaves me out Every mark says nothing has moved Every muscle says that isn't true I take the old turn, strike the wall The house stands up, but the measure falls What is the shape of change When the room and I misalign? Every mark is where it was Still the room won't match my stride I keep leaning on the frame But the frame keeps giving way I don't know which one moved first I only know we changed our shape Push the chair in, press the edge flush Repeat the route, press the new shape back Turn every picture back to level Keep every answer fixed and settled I tuck my ribs, I bow my head Wear the smaller words I used to defend But each old rule that held me in place Draws a harder border across my shape This is the shape of change When the room and I collide I can force the chairs into rows I can't force myself inside Let the frame resist my weight I won't fold to save the frame If the old design can't hold me I won't call my growth a mistake FOLD IT BACK! MAKE IT FIT! I DON'T FIT! Now the ceiling has no distance Now my hands have lost their scale Am I bending with the building Or the part that made it fail? No fixed center in my body No clean edge to call my own Just a name inside a structure That remembers who I've been You at the threshold, are you waiting Like a stranger I refused to know? Do you carry some new outline Or just room enough to grow? You don't answer from the doorway Still I feel you when I rise Maybe you were never outside Maybe you are in my stride I am the shape of change And the room can keep its name I won't force my bones to follow Every line that stayed the same You were never past the threshold You were motion I delayed I stand tall inside the question Then I move toward open space Same door, new weight, my hand on the frame One step toward the threshold I don't turn away
