and if through the breath released in smoke
someone’s poison lips let out words that come
to mess up your breathing, if you
grapple with your feelings, don’t look
at your skin until you can brush
the sting of their gazes away:
it won’t last unless you let it
form thunderclouds above your heart
then it will tear you apart

when you pick up that guitar again, or run
your thumb along the grooves of your pen,
pluck a tune, strum a melody
begin a paragraph with ‘I love myself’
and pour it out until you are whole again
do what you love and never stop,
not for or because of any soul, other than your own

and about the people who have hurt you, if they
are around and you feel down and I am not close by:
lift your chin a little ways, and walk up high -
walk straight, keeping your gaze far away
do not act the winner nor the loser,
just close the window on the rain
when you don’t want a damp blanket.
when the rain stops, I will reopen them
and the starlight will fall upon your sleeping figure
(tired lines, thin bones, tiny heart)
one bright light for every time you’ve ever felt alone