Listen, Kid
if i could point to anything
i’d want to tell my past self,
some advice to guide that dumb kid
through this thicket of thorns,
i’d tell him
your love is bigger than you believe
and that is not a weakness
and it sure as hell ain’t a fault,
you will love and hurt and
it’ll make you better,
the scratches and tears may
bloody and bruise your skin
but you will be surprised at how
softly and gently your heart can heal,
how it’ll open like sunlight
in the middle of winter,
how it’ll sound like your mother’s
voice when she sings,
quiet at first then wholly
and beautifully and definitely not
at the right pitch but
fuck it,
at least it’s honest.
i will grab him by the shoulders
and tell him
you snore like your father
and you burn inside
the way he did,
but he never stopped loving
and neither will you,
you will resolve this tension,
you can take the best parts of him and carry them in you
without fear of poisoning the rest,
i will tell him
that someday you will find words
and you will find your truth
and you will find that your truth changes
and so the words must change too.
and if he looks at me,
question marks
in his stare,
i will tell him
you move ever onward
but don’t you dare lose to fear,
don’t you dare stop fighting,
don’t you dare stop loving.