I cradle aches
like heirlooms—
not mine,
but remembered
deep in the joints of memory,
where silence once slept
in rooms with hollow lullabies.
I press cool cloths
to fevered skin
with hands that once reached
into shadow
and came back empty.
Now they are full—
of bandages,
of borrowed grace,
of tenderness sewn like stars
into every rough seam.
I stir soup
as if it were a spell,
watching steam rise
like ghosts of things
I used to need:
a steady voice,
a soft no,
arms that didn’t shake.
To care
is to time-travel—
to give the child inside me
what she never received
by giving it
to someone else.
Each thank you
is a stitch
in the tear I carry.
Each healed wound
in another
is a whisper to mine:
you’re not forgotten.
“You like taking care of people because it heals the part of you that needed someone to take care of you.”