Poem: How do you Thank Someone for Living?

Sometimes you tuck away the hurt you feel.
Hidden to where someone might only catch
a glimpse in your eyes or a change in your tone
of voice when you forget to be guarded.

Sometimes I hear it when the trauma has passed
and you gloss over it like it was an
obituary you read in the newspaper last year.

At other times, it’s released in a cathartic poem
where you think the demons will be released
now that you’ve named them, but they
follow you home.

It can reveal itself in a diagnosis, a termination,
a rejection, 15 million other ways to make you feel
forgotten, abandoned, useless, hopeless.

I hear your victory in those moments
when you let out the pain in small bursts.
At those times, when you let a stranger hear
your worst fears as the first thing they learn about you.

Or when you let in a friend who had no
idea what you’ve been struggling with.
I hear it.

Even when your triumph
slinks away quicker than you
could even acknowledge it.
I see it.

And I wanted to say thank you.
Thank you for continuing when you thought
hope was gone.

Thank you for fighting when
the odds were against you.
I can see clearly how you had to
scramble and claw, fighting
for a way to cling to the fabric of life.

Thank you for striving for hope.

Thank you for holding your broken heart
in your hands and moving forward when
you wanted to lay down and give up.

Thank you for surviving.