Wreckage


You don’t have to carve
the wreckage out
to make yourself someone
that someone can love.

You include the wreckage;
it is part of all of you –
and loving less than all of you's 
not loving you, it's shopping

Some of the wreckage is
the cold remains of something
warm –  like hope,
like promise, even love.

Sometimes you wrecked it,
sometimes someone else,
and sometimes it just happened;
you were there and...
            Whump!
It happened.

You were there for all of it;
it is yours now; bear it:
All the deep good stories
bear wreckage without shame.

People might tell you 
that carving out the wreckage
makes you better.

(It doesn’t.)

It makes you someone smaller,
someone else,
and hides you from your lovers,

(all but One).

April 26, 2023

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