I want to unfold

Sophie and I, 1995

I want to unfold

I don't want to stay folded

anywhere, because where I am folded,

there I am a lie.

And I want my grasp of things

true before you. I want to 

describe myself

like a painting that I

looked at closely for a

long time, like a saying that

I finally understood,

like the pitcher I use every day,

like the face of my mother,

like a ship

that took me safely through

the wildest storm of all.

Rainer Maria Rilke