My iPhone and I are
Secret keepers
If only people knew the contents we both keep
Heartache
Shame
Regrets
Struggles
the secrets that are always spoken in the faintest of whispers within darkness
Everyone knows I guard that IPhone with my life
but no one knows the real reason why…
I guard the hearts
of the secret speakers
I keep reminding myself it’s okay to be broken
And then another piece of me crumbles
Suddenly brokenness seems as death personified
I lay crumpled in a heap
Disbelieving that I can continue breathing
Slowly an inhalation passes past my lips
Then another
And another
I find myself gathering the few remaining pieces of me
Slowly I rise into what can be described as an almost standing position
I rally all my strength to take a trembling step forward
Little by little
I move toward my hopeful horizon
Only to find another piece of me breaking
Then the cycle starts all over again
One day my breath will cease
And my hopeful horizon will meet the evening fade to midnight black
You keep my heart from dying.
Loneliness eats away at me like a parasitic disease.
At its strongest I feel my very heart start to die within me.
Suffocating, squeezing, consuming…
Yet in the worst of moments I feel you, hear you, see you.
Your touch on my skin reminding me there is still warmth in the icy tundra of the world.
The words that escape your lips press so deeply into me, like the gentle reassuring pressure of a hand in the small of my back.
I don’t think you realize how you keep me from losing all sanity.
Every interaction, every moment you recognize me as a human being, as more than a mere face in the crowd, you save another part of my heart.
I withstand the abyss because of the love you offer and reinforce me with.
Paper and Ink 