Plenty

She gives of herself

because she is full, abundant, whole.

The blossoms and fruit fall and spread

with no danger to the roots

or fraying of the branches --

There is no emptiness to patch,

no injury to nurse,

no great whining fear to coax

and shush and sweet-talk

into curling back up beneath the esophagus,

dozing fitfully to be woken again by

a small noise or bad dream.

No, none of this heaviness hangs on her heart,

leaving it top-heavy and unstable --

she is unpredictable in her passions

but reliable in her generosity,

precisely because it is not a need,

but a gift freely given.

She -- this woman I am, this woman I will become --

she gives of herself because she wants to give,

not because

she wants to be loved for giving.

She gives of herself

because she is full.

Because she is abundant.

Because -

She is whole.