I may never meet you in person...
I may never know your name...
I may never hear your voice...
But that does not mean that I am incapable of understanding your pain.

This is not my teaching, but I must share it:

Imagine your trauma is but a glass of water.
You pick up this glass and
Hold it in front of you.
A minute passes.
Is the glass of water heavy?
No, and that is normal.
An hour passes, and your arm
Begins to hurt.
Three hours pass, and
It becomes almost unbearable
To hold the glass up.
The longer you hold on to the glass,
The heavier it seems to become.
Yet, the amount of water remains the same.
It is normal for the glass to not
Feel heavy at first,
Just as it is normal
To think back
On past traumas
From time to time.
But the longer you
Hold on to these memories,
And the more you think of them
The heavier they seem to become.

The longer you hold on to something,
The heavier it will feel.
Just like the glass of water.

the day is fleeting,
so why not seize it?

you might not
get the chance
tomorrow

perfection must be
the fastest runner
because nobody,
nobody

has ever caught
it

is everyone else broken like me,

just better at hiding it??



or is everyone else okay,

except for me??

You asked me if I had
     Written
a poem today?

No I said.  You could not
have known that you are

     my poem.

My metaphors have changed.
You took my sad attempt’
'
to make of my life

     a story someone might
read, even for a moment.
Tonight I can tell you

     You are the meter
which steers the thing
I call love.

An unusual poem, filled
with all the things you are.

So I will know you when
     finally
we are met
and One.  

Caroline Shank
December 17. 2024

For Kinik

Swaying curtain in the window,
airguns after dinner,
broken doll on the highway,

a promise is a promise.

The small winters
in the corner of her eyes,
Mom and Dad, they hold serve
in the garden, at the office,
no one is watching as she reels,

hurt whispers on.

Walking past stones and trees,
the bones of things,
coming at it all wrong,
this time she makes a promise,

under a name that hides her.