These beautiful people: They have begun hugging me.
With their word-wise mouths, Their penny-short hearts, their Ancient souls; they hug me
With abandon. They hold me for a very long time, Until it is inappropriate to pull away.
I can feel the downbeat, diastole Of their heartbeats, saying: Thank-you. Thank-you.
And I hear the pump-out The systole, upbeat saying: You're not-alone. Not-alone.
Never have I felt so warm As I did then.
Because of that, I will learn To hug others in the way they Are hugging me; I will learn new ways Of interacting with people Who look the same As me on the inside.
I will acquire a new method Of touching kindred souls That does not involve taking them home With me, kissing madly, clothesless and Looking out all night from hungry eyes, While expecting a prompt reply Every time I say to them "You are so Lovely."
I will practice new ways Of giving love away,
And I will cease this habit of laying My body down like a penny On a rail-road track and Asking to be pressed Into a different form That might be Easier to bear.
I will learn to simply hug them; For only then I can begin To let my heartbeats start Speaking to their hunger, With all of those words, I know, They are dying to hear.
~CRH May 2012 With lines borrowed from "Little Round Mirrors" by Harvey Danger and "That Moon Language" by Hafez Note: Feel free to share my work with others but please make sure to use my name if you do.