My Therapist’s a Lady

 

It’s all so simple now,

yet it took 30 years

to begin to understand.

It’s as though someone

stole the primer I had

and gave me another

in my own language.

It’s because you are

who you are

that I’ve begun

to become who I am.

That sounds too dramatic.

All you did, really, was scream

when you opened the bathroom door,

saw me wrapped in a towel,

standing at attention on a mat,

waiting in my thirtieth  year

for the steam to clear

from the cabinet mirror,

waiting for someone

to shout, “At ease.”

 

Donal Mahoney