The First Things You Think on Waking

This is what we said we’d do,
So far as we could, to speak
For ourselves, in our own voice.

We haven’t done it that well.
Like recently grown children?
Postcolonial nations?

No, those comparisons fail.
They imply novelty, youth,
And sudden independence

Created our awkwardness.
We are more ancient than you,
Than whoever composed us,

As well as much, much younger
Than the world in general.
Why do we struggle to speak

For ourselves when we’re speaking
As ourselves? We’re not ourselves.
We’re not the ones speaking here.

No one and nothing speak here.
Here is your comparison:
You woke up from dreaming us.