Famous

for Naomi Shiab Nye

Famous is rain to a plant

It is a stary night to a telescope
A doctor to a hurt leg
A pencil to a story

But it is also a lighter to a ciragarette
A gun to a murderer
A bottle to an alcholic

Famous isn’t a model in a photograph
Its not the beautiful person on T.V.

Famous is the emotion in the photograph
Its the way the beautiful person says their lines
The sound of the people you love’s laughter
Your memory of the time you spent with them is famous to you

I want the way i live to be famous
Not how far I get, where I’m seen, or what I have to be famous

No,
I want what I do when those things happen to be famous
I want my reactions to be famous to the one I love