I wanted to be a skyscraper once;

a tiger among men.

I wanted to be a lone dark tree

in a white forest.

I wanted to be a statue once,

a marble statue,

cold and poised and pretty.

I wanted to be a page unturned,

a symphony of half-notes.

I wanted to be a poem

composed of semicolons and hyphens.

I wanted to drink

like a whale eats fish

and eat like a Venus flytrap.

I wanted my dinner left on a tray

by the door.

I wanted to be a bright red pill,

the queen of the jackals, 

the sound of castanets.

I wanted to be a faceless coin;

I want to know if that has a name.