To Love Me Properly

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To love me properly

Be vulnerable
Come honest

Practice deep curiosity
Not just about me
About EVERYTHING!

Be emotionally intelligent
Especially about yourself

Dream
Imagine

Never forget how to look at me
Like I'm the North Star

Want me to write books of poetry about
How you and me equals us

Dance with me to the rhythm of our heartbeats

Enjoy staying up into the quiet hours
Discussing obscure and wonderful things

Willingly and gently hold space for me
Be okay with being, and being with quiet company

Give and receive love in spontaneous small gestures

Own your imperfections gracefully
Own your mistakes openly

Love me fiercely and without chains

Hunt for magic in the world
Create magic in its absence

Play for the sake of it

Respect me in thought, word, and deed
Honor me by dancing in the light of all my
Shining diamond facets
I'll do the same for you

Desire to embrace a prismatic life

Whatever is left undefined here
Treat as an opportunity to dive deeper
Learn more
Know me better
I am bottomless
An endless landscape to explore

Be willing to be broken open
I want to run my mind over every square inch of your soul
Commit to memory the scars life has left on your heart
So that I may know how to navigate your rough waters

I want to listen to the meanderings of your inner child

I want to know you in 360 degrees
And three dimensions

Be brave enough to shine light into your shadows
Unashamed because you understand
How important healing oneself is

Be secure in my transparency

Be like stained glass
Brilliantly and complexly designed
Beautiful and translucent

Know that love is a lifetime conversation
A dance that never ends
Shifting and changing
Gracefully synchronized

The prerequisites for loving me properly
May sound unachievable
But to the right person
It will sound like a revelation

-gws


Brown-eyed Boy

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He was a brown-eyed boy
Freckles on his cheeks
He shared his gummy Coke bottles
And always picked me to play at recess
He was a little misunderstood
But not by me
I saw him as kindred
He helped transform the gray playground
Into space ships and fantastical landscapes
It didn't matter I was an icky girl
Or that he was an yucky boy
He was comfortable with me
And I with him
My heart broke when he moved away
I never meant to lose contact but we did
We found each other for a minute
Just after high school
He sent me a letter and a picture
A man's version of the freckled face I once knew
Adorned in dress blues
I think I responded too enthusiastically
I never got another letter
And my heart broke a second time
I hope that wherever he is
He is happy
A brown-eyed boy
With freckles on his cheeks
Sharing gummy Coke bottles
With someone he loves

-gws

When I Met You

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When I met you
You were charming
But nowhere near perfect
You were charismatic
But endearingly flawed
You were looking for a party
But you accidentally found a home

When you met me
I was unapologetically myself
But I was naive
I was willing to take risks
But not necessarily with my heart
I was looking for experiences
But accidentally found connection

What I didn't know
Was what a damaged soul looked like
What I didn't know
Was that you were a blackhole gobbling the light

What you didn't know
Was I was a whole universe
What you didn't know
Was divine light cannot be devoured

We didn't begin as we ended
We started as a soft glow
Hopeful and carefree
I couldn't tell you when
I think the inferno began

I became the fuel that you would burn
Trying to fill your infernal yearning
The gaping emptiness inside of you
With a meaningful light
That once was me

I thought if I loved you enough
I would somehow be enough
To sate your appetite for more
But all you were was an insatiable maw
And I a blazing star
Who's fire was never bright enough
Who's light could never warm you up
Because black holes cannot be quenched
They can only demand - MORE

So I became a comet with a star at its core
My corona full of survival and fury
Breaking free of your event horizon
I would not be devoured by your darkness

Now no light surrounds you
You have consumed all else you had
Nothing orbits you but cold and quiet
The space around you dead

When you met me
We had hope we could love each other well
When I left you
Was to heal from just how far I fell
But I'm a girl with phoenix wings
And a star within my heart
I blaze a trail across the sky
As I make a fresh new start

-gws

Monster

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Am I now the monster you wanted me to be
The one who looks only to me
Who collected every tear I cried
Until they became a tragic sea

Upon that sea I built a boat
And struggled just to keep afloat
While you growled and raged and stormed
And locked my voice inside my throat

For years I let you make me small
Choking me with blame for all
Your vast fears and insecurities
Your own inflictions you can't recall

So let me be a monster now
And you can tell exactly how
You took a girl who loved you well
And nearly broke her spirit down

But don't forget to tell the tale
Of how that girl did so prevail
Walked away for good and true
And cut herself a brand new trail

-gws

Love is Not Enough

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"Love is not enough"
This was a truth I gave you
In place of a kiss goodbye
Love is not enough to bridge
The chasm separating us
Neither is it flexible enough
To withstand the tension
It cannot rewrite our history
Erase the years of pain
It cannot alter reality
Nor save our unsalvageable marriage
The love between us is a shadow
A wraith
A remnant
Of a hope dressed up to look like love
In third-hand threadbare finery
The illusion shattered
And the real state of things exposed

-gws

A Love Letter for Those Who Love Me

Thank you all for being my angels
My bowling lane bumper guards
My Jiminy Crickets
My chorus of friends and family
Who say the things I have had so much trouble saying to myself
For constantly reminding me that the children and I
Demand, command, and deserve
To be held most valuable
For reminding me that no matter how terrible I feel about what I am doing
That there is a greater good that I must serve
That of the wellbeing of my family of three growing souls and one old, weary one
“I love you,” is hardly powerful enough
“I’m grateful,” is impotent in its ability to deliver the depth
Of what I feel for what you are doing for me and my children
You have filled the many holes in me with light and love and patience and grace
This journey hasn’t drowned me because you have pulled my head from beneath the water
Gently reminding me to breathe until I can remember how to float again
I know I wouldn’t be at this place
Walking forward one painful step at a time without all of you
Picking me up and cheering me on

-gws

Friends…

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Friends...

Hold me up when the weight of my world
Causes my knees to buckle
Sing truth to my inflamed mind
When the noise of living trauma
Drowns my ability to reason
Gentle
Patient
Empathetic
Sometimes sharp but never cruel
My lighthouse in stormy waters
My safety net when the trapeze breaks
My light in the darkest and longest nights
Voicing wisdom I need at the right time
In the right way
Through the right person
Another conduit through which
My Goddess speaks to me
All of them a blessing I can never
Craft adequate words to encompass
So important and special
Their glow is to my night sky

-gws