Heart Crumbs
My heart crumbled
When I had to walk on those eggshells.
Every word you didn't like,
A land mine ,
Every phrase that didn't flatter you,
A sure explosion
To crumble my heart
While I took shelter behind walls of silence.
My heart crumbled
When I had to stand before that critical eye.
Each flaw of mine,
Put on display,
Each stregnth of mine,
Buried alive
Until all I saw were weaknesses,
And my courage suffocated in the dirt.
Take those crumbs,
And follow them to their source,
This half-beaten, half-dead muscle.
And with your gentle ear,
Quick to listen
But not quick to anger,
Remind it that it is
Half-victorious and half-alive.
And with your lovely words
Of truthful praise
And positive guidance,
Dig up that happiness from the ground,
And remind that crumbling heart
That is a muscle
Made for strength
Strengthened by persistence.
Return those crumbs
From whence they came,
And mend that heart
With something calm, considerate, and compassionate.