Rubbed Raw

many times, we

ignore what we need.

training ourselves to be pleasing, to

stay palatable, to be

chosen, devaluing our worth so others call us loveable, to get more

attention, convincing ourselves they will be gentle

and kind with

our hearts, while we ourselves,

deliberately abandon our own when we

give without limits, still never receiving what we need.

if we dare to

stop performing for scraps, maybe we will heal.

maybe we

will learn it’s not shameful to need

and we will be able to

discover who we are beneath survival, explore

our hopes, our

emotional sensitivities

that have been flayed thin, rubbed raw

and we

will finally understand what we need

is to

decide, without apology, how to feel.

********************************************************************************************************************************************I used Sophia Thakur's poem Tenderness from her book Somebody Give This Heart a Pen to create this Golden Shovel poem.

We need to be more gentle with ourselves

we need to heal

we need to explore our sensitivities raw

we need to feel