empathy
it's funny
something so necessary
for me to be
good at my job
can cause me so much pain

when you're an empath
so deeply connected
to those who you love
by virtue of your intuition
there are aspects that are
godly
a gift
a treasure

music drenches your senses
visual beauties are wild bliss
a sunset ocean is jewel-drenched ecstasy

but
there is a dark side
because we don't only feel the good
we feel it all
- sometimes too much

heartache, heartbreak, to us
it's like a visceral wound
something that causes a loved one pain
it leeches into you
with such voracious toxicity
like chemicals into groundwater
tension, conflict, and stress are like poison
straight down to the cells

so be careful what you wish for
because when it's out of your control
it gets real

love is like the smell of fresh-baked bread
and the crackling of the crust when it's torn
like cat fur drenched in sunlight
like fireflies in a starlit sky with the taste of wild strawberries **** and lingering on your tongue
the smell of a summer campfire
the crackle of fall leaves
it is everything

but heartbreak
is a wide, visceral, somatic wound
it is the veteran's phantom pains in a lost limb
it is walking into an invisible spiderweb
it is the sound of broken bones grinding together
waking up during surgery, suddenly able to feel everything
all the seconds leading up to a car crash, and then that terrible impact
seeing it coming
and not being able
to do
a **** thing
about it