She Told Me.

"Fly away," she told me,
"Fly and close your eyes
Until you're not scared anymore.
Fly until you're soaring
So high, you can't feel
The pain you are to him."

--

"Breathe," she told me,
"And breathe until your heart stops racing.
Until your shaking subsides,
Until you are floating in
The presence of hope again."

"Stare," She told me, "stare into the eyes, and behind the sins,
And the guilt.
Stare ahead into those eyes,
The eyes of innocence that once were.
Stare into what you were,
And what you could be.
The eyes of an angel awaits."

"You crumble in the face of hardship,
Yet derive strength from the loss of others.
You seek challenge, yet falter in its weight,
And then learn less of yourself."

Enough, I tell myself.
Enough of faking an existence that shelters
You from truth.
Seek, I tell myself, the peace you
Need in order to live
And be happy.

I fly.
I breathe.
I stare
and I crumble.
But I rise, and smile
As I stare in the reflection
of an angel.