For You

Here,

stranger,

take my heartbreak in your hands,

I am giving it to you in words

that I scribbled onto receipts

and margins

when they could no longer stay in.

Here is the loss

I have carried in my chest

that has unraveled in my stomach,

the weight of myself.

Take these poems

they spill from my fingers,

they leave me naked,

this is me coming to terms

with my vulnerability.

Here it is stranger,

take my word,

these words are what make me,

save me, blame me, shake me.

My hands could never make music

so they made these instead,

I wanted to be music to someone's ears,

but rather

I became sprawled letters

on crumpled paper

to people that will never read them.

Read my pain in these pages,

this is the person

I don't project to the world.

Take these pieces,

these poems are my attempt

to piece myself

together.

Stranger,

my heart

and mind,

my love

and loss

are at your feet,

be kind.

2017