you wonder what it means to be honest entire,

to recognize deep what you carry within,

to know the drip, drip of sound and exact

volume of your tears, to recognize both the

pleasant and the painful, to welcome both

within your mother heart—and  to offer  

that heart towards yourself.

 

for how else can you go forth into the world

other than what you truly are–damp and new?

how can you nourish and become the better version

that you desire if you do not honour what that is

whether you are drawn to her person—or not.

 

she did not arrive in vacuum. no, she

is conglomerate wide of all experience,

of ups and downs, of highs and lows and of

many leagues traversed in the in-between.

 

she is both full of the luxury of choice,

and of periods limited by ‘survival’—and

yet she often judges herself more harshly

for the latter.

 

is that fair? is that honouring?

is that even remotely kind?

 

so, learn from her mistakes,

 

but offer her limitless volumes of grace.

she did the best that she could at the time.

 

when you look back upon the journey,

you clearly see that anything that was not

authentically you was nothing but a heavy

stack of baggage piled high, weighing

endlessly down, step upon weary,

drudging step.

 

and you know this as truth—that you

are the sum of many things, and you carry

enough already so, lay these down and

recognise in peace that the things

that remain, that invite you to smile,

are shoots grown strong from the root

of the most genuine, the most honest,

the most authentic version of you designed.

 

and in truth, you like her indeed, and all

that she has needed all along to thrive

is to be allowed to simply raise her head

released from the weight upon her neck

—and breathe.

 

Heather Pound 2024

Photo by Matthias Oberholzer on Unsplash