NEPHART.COM

They wanted me to be A.

Perfect.

Approved.

Something that fit

on a form.

But I was B.

Bent.

Beginning again

before I finished the first line.

I tried to become C,

containing myself,

cutting the corners off my hunger,

avoiding D…

the fear

of being done

before I was known.

E

was never easy.

Nothing essential ever is.

So F

taught me how to fall

without breaking

into pieces I couldn’t return from.

G was labelled good,

rewarded for obedience.

H was crowned hero,

loud enough

to be seen

but not heard.

I carried ideas like fire,

but they branded me J.

A joke.

A meme.

Something passed around

without being held.

Never K.

Never a king.

Just a character

they could skip.

L lived in my heart,

but love stayed M.

Momentary.

Warm hands.

No promise

to remain.

N

never learned

the shape of no,

so it kept saying yes

until it disappeared.

And O…

O was omnipresent.

Not in the sky.

Not in sermons.

Not in answers.

But watching.

Waiting.

Breathing

from inside me.

That was the moment

I realized

I was not broken…

I was becoming.

P

kept pushing me

toward the Question,

the one without applause,

the one no one could answer for me.

And R…

reckless,

sometimes ruthless,

but flowing like a river

that didn’t ask permission

to move.

I stopped fighting the current

and learned

to flow.

S

shifted my perception.

The world didn’t change.

I did.

T

teamed up with truth,

and truth

didn’t need defending.

U

taught me

I am more

than fragments,

more than letters,

more than what survived.

V

was victory.

Not over people.

Not over power.

But over the voice in my head

that kept whispering:

kneel.

W

gave my mouth words

that fit my breath.

X

turned noise into rhythm,

pain into pattern,

living into music.

Y

yapped

just to be heard,

because silence

had raised me

for years.

And Z…

Not an ending.

A quiet zeal.

No applause.

No altar.

Just enough fire

to stay standing

when no one

is watching.

Because in the end

I was never the alphabet.

I was

the voice

learning

how to speak.