Good & Aching Heart

A poem - For anyone tired from caring too much.

Photo by Ana Beatriz Otaviano

The news will keep without you
for the next five minutes.

I know you’re tired,
so tired…
the kind that comes from caring
when caring keeps costing.

And still your heart does this,
aches for strangers,
for places you’ll never go,
for people whose names
you don’t know and
what a thing to be…
what an impossible, necessary thing.

The ones who came before us
went through this, too.
They didn’t know how the story ended either,
they went to bed afraid
and made coffee in the morning anyway.

Somewhere up ahead
there’s an ordinary afternoon,
your bare feet on warm grass,
your face tipped toward the sky,
the sun on your closed eyes.

But today be tired.
Be sad. Be mad.
Let your good and aching heart
rest against something soft
and know it’s done enough.

You’ve done enough.

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Thanks for reading!

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