Scar Tissue

Child:

It is no wonder your heart is not beating as it should.

Your years have been spent

mending its broken chambers.

You are made of wounds

stitched together with lies & neglect;

It is no wonder you feel so empty,

It is no wonder there is so much you cannot feel.

 

Because of oxygen deprivation,

following a heart attack, the precious chambers become scarred.

Because of scar tissue,

patients who have a single attack are more likely

to experience heart failure.

 

Child:

You are made of scar tissue;

Time after time, your heart has been attacked:

more vulnerable each moment to wreckage,

more likely each moment to break.

It is no wonder you feel broken:

When your body is so thick with scar tissue,

you have no pores through which love may penetrate

your desperate soul.

 

Child:

If it is warmth you wish to feel,

you must reopen your wounds. They've been stitched

together for years

in shame & fear.

 

But Child I swear:

Let yourself fracture;

Your open wounds are windows

for lightness & love,

for even sunflowers may bloom

in sidewalk cracks.

Child, I swear:

You are not broken;

Your fault lines are not

your fault, and you will not earthquake

into rubble.

Your cracks grow gardens of sunflowers & hope.

 

& Child:

Your gardens are beautiful.

 

& You,

My Child,

are Beautiful.