Pain, Part 1

The Poem

Hello dear readers! I attempted to publish this on Sunday — my usual publication day — but I don’t think it reached you. If it did, I apologize for the duplication. Fingers crossed that my next offering will arrive in your inbox this Sunday… :-)

Unexpected Gift

Thank you.
You have handed me
another unexpected gift.
What used to take months, even years
to unwrap, elapsed in only half a day.

Progress!

Ages ago, I didn’t even try.
I recoiled from your open hands
and let the gift fall,
cursing you.

The next time I took it
and buried it deep in the backyard.
The time after that, I shelved it
and pretended it wasn’t there

but it shouted at me, demanding
I take it down every now and then
and examine it, which I did.
I always put it back.

One day, I decided to
unwrap it. After all,
you gave it to me
because you love me.

I grappled with it.
Its formidable folds confused me,
scalded my tentative fingers. It hurt.
I wanted to give up, drop it, run—

yet I didn’t. I sobbed over it in my lap
until it opened itself, oyster-like,
and its emptiness
spilled pearls of light at my feet.

It has taken a lifetime
to thank you for the gift
that was and always shall be:
growth, wrapped in pain

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Keep your light shining bright.

Mary