He'd come in your
darkest hour.
Pull you out to
the light.
Cleaned you up.
Teach you who to
never fall again.
And by then, He
will release you
of your sorrows.

-HIY

How do you think
he learned to touch
you like that, darling?

He didn't learn
that himself.

I’d like to say thank you
For showing me how
To pick out the Big Dipper
In a strangely starred sky.

Finding stolen jackets in my room
catches me off-guard
"Oh! hello cozy reminder of
the boy that toyed with my heart.
I forgot I stuffed you
in this corner of my drawer..."



I don't want them, really.
But I can't bring myself to throw them away.
Or give them back.
I know I should keep them.
These were priceless at one point;
they feel like intruders in my life now.



But sometimes it snows.

Then I can see the warmth those reminders
once provided.
I pull on layers of memories
to have a snowball fight
with my sisters.
I reuse. I reframe.

Which is all we can do
With relics of our pain.

We apply what we've learned,
From pain, to our lives;
We wear these lessons
Like jackets.
We grow.
Pain is only a teacher
that can aid us now

if we let it.