Dear Sledgehammer Heart,
You are tough as nails,
and you are also soft as silk.
You are wildflowers
blossoming in the spring,
and again in the summer.
You bloom more for yourself,
than for anyone else.
You are both student and teacher
with fistfuls of love,
clenched for those that hurt.
You taught me
the importance of a good porch:
The Foundation Must Be Solid.
A Home can be built anywhere,
as long as the Foundation is Solid.
You taught me to announce myself,
and to be proud of the songs that come out.
(Even when the sounds are sharp,
they must be set free somehow, right?)
And you taught me
how to handle a heart
as delicate as mine
pretends not to be,
with soft hands and gentle love
Stones smoothed into little pebbles
at the bottom of a river.
I can only hope I have learned
to hold your heart
with the skill and grace of bird wings
And to lift you
higher
as you do me.
It is the only way I can think to return
the lightness
you gift by existing.
Please remember,
My Sledgehammer Man,
you must simply exist
and the universe is lighter
for it.
A love letter written to my best friend, who calls himself "The boy with the Sledgehammer Heart" in his own poetry. No one has ever held my heart quite like you, Lex. I am forever thankful.
