New pain is always the worst. The kind you never knew you could feel. And I watch you stew in it as I did, But my viciousness came later. My stone walls, My excuses. I had to be kicked for a long time Like a wounded puppy Years In order to gain the fangs I needed to survive But what that saved me from was turning my bitterness upon others. Since I learned only in self defense My kindness remained. I sacrificed other parts of me- Oh, too many, I sometimes think, To avoid giving it up. But it remained, like a secret candle I held in the core of me Its pure light peeking through the bars of my ribcage When my skin stretched over it like bleached canvas. You... I am afraid you're not like me. I'm afraid you will not give up your love Like I didn't But neither, perhaps, will you defend your kindness- You may not have known cruelty for long enough to realize You need to. What you need to fight for is not your survival, not your freedom from the tyranny of feeling, not even your choice to love a girl who treats you so cruelly What you need to be defending with every breath is your decency, and your empathy, and your innate kindness Because the world does not love kind people. The world soils them. And if you are willing to suffer for love but not for kindness, You will curdle inside like cream left in the sun. I have been where you are. I have been hurt by people like her And by people like you And what I have found hardest out of all the things I've survived Was surviving with KINDNESS.
Survive with kindness, I'm telling you, Or your work will be Wasted.