I have no siblings
no brothers
no sisters
no hermaphroditic undecideds
that shared my bedroom growing up.
I slept alone
– if I slept at all.

I had no pets
few friends
and a locked door behind me
when I came back from school,
blocks and blocks
away from home.
I enjoyed a solitary childhood.

And it is strange
how the child is father to the man
and the acorn grows into a gigantic monstrous acorn-bush
and the way you were defines the way you will forever be.

It is strange how little company
I had as a boy
and now
I am constantly crowded by a public
that cannot leave me alone
here
in this penitentiary.