When I think about the words

And what they mean, they are perhaps

Not so terrifying as they might have been--

Not as constraining, not as defining.

The words are only a spoken imitation, after all,

Of what my body is already articulating:

Desire, attraction, approval, focus. 

Mistakes make me strong, make me

Surer-footed on the next incline;

after this it seems likely 

I will never fall again.