his vellum soul
tattered from being
folded and unfolded
tear streaked and
torn from years
of seeking answers
in the incomprehensible
shallows of the heart
for which it once
offered navigation
before accumulated scars
turned a simple map
into a congruence of
disparate sorrows
carved in the crescent
smiles gone to tears
etched hastily along
the yellowed margins
of an origami soul
formless except for
the crisscrossed creases
where they tried to
shape him into someone
worthy of their dreams