Threshold

How young I am 
in the photograph,
flanked by family, 
which is all I know
of the world. I don't 
feel yet the light
humming in the vein, 
the strobing 
at my temples, 
the restlessness
of language beneath 
my ribs. If someone 
had told me there was 
more than one way out, 
I wouldn't have 
believed it. Everyone 
I knew said marry, 
though they were always 
guarding the door.