Regifting

Regifting

Seems you’ve forgotten everything you said you’d learned

You were going to change, remember? You said

You’d try to be a better person

Then sure enough—

What bad influences!

Let sway you

Or were you confused because of your footing?

But that’s just growing pains, Dear

You apparently forgot

Others had placed

Great faith in you

Yes, the pressure can be unbearable—suffocating at times

But do you think you’re the only one who’s been through the wringer? And already?

So, did you forget? Was it apathy, instead? Was it deliberate?

Maybe you chose not to look ahead at the grief you could cause

Perhaps others’ disappointments meant little

And your own? Somewhat more? But really less

Maybe you hadn’t heard enough

Just didn’t want to hear anymore

Because you were tired of it

Or weren’t ready yet

You wanted to listen to the Beatles, again

But it was in fact what they’d read—to convince themselves first

Through some ambiguity to, then, make people stop and think that

“the love you make is equal to the love you take”

So, it wasn’t that you didn’t know, completely

You’re smarter than that

You had no way, no good and ready tools to help

You couldn’t merely borrow someone else’s

You needed to learn how to use your own each passing day

And when you scream, “Enough already!!”

People everywhere do

You simply lose sight of what’s outside

And those you hurt so much

And don’t know they hurt, like you hurt—or worse

That’s why you have to be gentle

Because you do care after all

But the secret is, caring when caring seems impossible

And you have to force it out

And it literally makes you sick

Embracing when the embraced resists

Shutting up when the world, it seems, accuses you falsely

Don’t you know?

True courage doesn’t strike back

It takes the blows one after the other

And does more than tolerate pain

It even forgives

You’ve heard that the world is full of malice and wickedness

That heroes are nowhere to be found

That real criminals go unpunished

Not all true—It was selective hearing

It was the news focusing on the sensational

Truth is, heroes are born every day in the everyday

You’re just as capable as anyone else

You just have to empathize and then act

And that boy you say you hate

Even after giving him a halfhearted sorry

You weren’t thinking about his feelings, his pains

The frustrations and hardships he faces

At home with his family in tatters

With his friends who don’t understand what’s really important

Because they too have problems of their own

Yet, you know about pride

Do you know it’s not at all a virtue?

Who asks to be a victim and does nothing?

The desire for retribution is natural, often overwhelming,

As human as laughter and tears

But do you know that justification and justice

Are two very different things?

How terribly, terribly sad to see you go when

You don’t see what you do

Mostly to yourself

Opportunities you squander

Griefs you pile up and onto—so much useless baggage

Hopelessness you turn into cancer

Did no one ever tell you?

Some types of suffering are worse than death

Fear is worse than humiliation

Only the twisted dare say otherwise

It’s the “when,” and anybody can

There’s actual beauty in all the muck

You’ll see it if you try

And if you listen

And you recognize that love is the only

Four-letter word worth shouting, whispering

Then maybe, yes, maybe!

Because life throws boulders and walls in your way to test you

And, oddly enough, tragedy to help you learn all the better

You can see the goodness everywhere

Even in you

Draft #3 (7/17/2016)

Draft #2 (9/24/2011)