Whole

I cry at change like a teething child

Swollen eyes fight themselves open while I

Drift through the inevitable motions

As myself, but hollowed,

Weightless before the fall.

I like who I am on the other side of tears;

Baptized by epiphany, never collecting the pity but

Standing three feet tall all I feel inside that space

Are bruises and obligations

To be more now, to replace what’s gone with

Heavier convictions and wider pictures.

I was always and always will be whole

A lesson better learned sooner than later

Before the struggle for the parts of others,

Being not the purpose of their parts.

I chose good leaders but not myself, yet

I close my eyes and faintly see it’s

My vessels keeping my being alive

My body healing my mouth;

Realities to apply

Then I do so,

And so I grow on.