Dave Bonta's "Reinvention" is a short burst of self-questioning. The speaker opens with two blunt questions: who do I hate, and who do I grow into? Putting them side by side suggests the two might be linked, that hating some version of yourself is part of how you change. There's no answer, only the restless feeling of someone caught between who they were and who they're becoming.
The middle image is odd and lovely. Like corn in the sun, the speaker "makes canticles," or songs of praise. Growth here feels natural and almost unstoppable, and the result is something close to worship. Then the final lines turn sharply: all this must be "the arson of the self." Arson is deliberate destruction by fire, so becoming someone new seems to mean setting your old self alight. The mood is tense and unsettled, with a thrill in it too. Change is shown as both a bright, ripening growth and a fire the speaker has started themselves.