I've been seeing more shooting stars lately
Lately as in the past three years
Maybe it's because I'm out here
At nighttime, slowing my car down on a country road
and turning off my lights
So I can see the sky better
Making sure there aren't any stars blazing in my rearview.

In the deepest affliction
the sufferer gains sharp insight
into the truth of life
that far transcends reason

Life--the ugliness
and the beauty
the misery
and the glory

but everything --surely-
will flourish abundantly
when you say truthfully
that you dearly love me

Like the last falling rose in winter
lonely and silently I'll wither and die
but new ones will replenish the earth
and adorn the meadow 'neath a benign sky

if you've trusted and understood me
you'll be assured that I'll still abide
in your ever faithful heart
where love will eternally reside

Every word of yours
has the imprint of  ineradicable ink
it makes the heart pause
to wonder and think

I remember the pain—
knowing that you spoke lies,
controlled me with fear,
told others of your sins
while painting me as the villain.

You broke me
over and over and over.
I flinch at hugs.
I cry with loss—
loss of my heart.

You broke me.
I am barely a person,
shaped by the pain you caused.
I nearly took that final step

because you needed control,
needed to lash out, to hurt me.
You told others it was me—
that I caused the pain you inflicted.

You paint yourself as a victim.
I barely survived.
You continue your actions,
wallowing in false sympathy.

I bare my pain
through my poems.