...and when I looked inside myself
searching for a reason to live,
I met a tall child.

...and when I asked
his name?
He responded in rhythmic patterns
I had never heard
With elocution that left me standing
shocked and breathless
in the vacuum his
vocal inflections
had created.

...and he told me:
"All we know
we learned from Jun Fan,
like a finger pointing
a way to the moon. But
the stiff palm no longer
falls upon us,
we have learned
the methods of aversion
but what else have we learned?"

...and in the instance
of hesitation
the eternity in
the second I spent
searching for the words,
He vanished.

I shouted into the light
after him:
We have learned
to fall in love.
We have learned
to open our steel breastplate
and entrust our fragility
to another. and
We have been cut to bits for it
So
We have learned to heal
to gather
the pieces of ourselves
thrown to the floor by
those we cared for most
sewn together with twine
staind by the
red of our essence

A mark for all to see,
I Am
Scarred but not broken
Standing until the end