What is a poem?
Sometimes a prayer,
A spell cast into the universe,
Or a message in a bottle
Dropped into an infinite sea

Words strung together
We build little boats
Hoping they’ll transport us

Sometimes just a list
Made up of truths
Or grief
Or wishes

Little by little
Line by line
Opening the heart
Refocusing our attention

How much easier
It would have been
To give up
A thousand times over

To choose the warn path
Walking in the footsteps
Of generations of avoidance
Toward a slow death
Into a pit of darkness and suffering

But we couldn’t bear it
We imagined another way
And found the support we needed
To do the painful work
Of stepping directly
Into the discomfort

Through the portals of grief
We moved toward
An unsettlingly
Unfamiliar freedom

Into the embrace
Of loving ourselves
We made it possible
To truly love one another
Wide open and honest

There is nothing left to say

I’m no longer willing
To betray myself for your comfort

I’m moving toward truth
While you remain blinded by fear

One day, I hope you’ll join me here
But know this: I won’t be coming back your way

It was our fairy tail
Floating on the saltwater sea
Holding hands
Seaweed tickling our toes
Cradled by the waves
The sun setting in the bright blue sky
We watched the golden light
Touch the moss drenched cypress trees
A coyote dashed across the sand
We were wide eyed in awe
Beauty in every little detail

This is our fairy tail
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love this love

Aftershocks rage through my body
Fifteen years past the main event
Pain that is deep and unrelenting
To fight it is to press into the bruises

The invitation is to surrender
But how can I trust myself
to make it to the other side?