words to a wounded healer

~
you have to remember
to protect yourself
stay grounded
hold a smooth stone
   - a heavy stone-
until you can no longer feel its weight
become earth
become gravity

you have to remember to protect yourself
open the top of your head
let light shine down
filling you until
it flows out
through fingers
into their darkness
replacing disease

remember to protect yourself
fold their pain into paper cranes
send them into the breeze

don't swallow their sickness
suck in their sin
hold all the weight
don't give your own breath
or pass your last light

or like me you will find yourself
hollow yet heavy
driving north on a southbound road
searching for something
    - someone -
to hit you with an open hand again
and again harder
harder until something
finally cracks
and breaks
into peace

and for two months
you must hold cotton
between your lips
and dark soil between fingers
breathe in the steam
of a hundred and twenty
sinks and showers
until you come to rest
against the oldest tree
on the courthouse lawn
willing roots
to hold you
as you sign the papers
giving everything
away

~