Yoga Teacher

My dad never taught me to do a headstand

You just wouldn't get it

Maybe I need a stranger looking at me to be able to fall asleep

To keep guard kinda

Don't know what that shit is he's burning, but it smells like home

Or church

We bow, I lurch forwards

Off balance or re-centring

I don't have any of those baggy pants, but he still loves me, I'm sure of it

Catch his eye

My friends joke that I've come here just to meet someone, and I deny it lyingly

On this musty borrowed PE foam mat

I'm a downward-facing class traitor

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

Try to lose yourself, he says

Too late, mate, I'm adrift

Spine lengthened and a tense midriff

I wonder if he has children and if he'd cradle me

He probably thinks it's bad for the planet, and I sort of agree

At least that's what I want him to think

Lotus position on the count of four

Forehead on the floor

Surprisingly comfortable

Accidentally make eye contact with a girl I've seen before

She lives one street over

Well-travelled, her own mat, and a tattoo of a compass on her ankle

I'm out here in the east, shaking like a leaf

And I wonder if he can tell

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

But he's my yoga teacher

Release

He's my yoga teacher

Breathe in

Hold, release

There's a bit where we all just lie down

My favourite bit

Down here on the ground

And he moves through us

You're never quite sure where he is

And if he picks you, he massages your temple

His fingers move in tiny circles

And I realise these five-pound lessons won't fix me

Because this is about letting go

And even here

Vinyasa flow

I'm obsessed with being chosen

And I've still got one eye open