TheWanderingPaddy

“Life’s too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right,

forgive the ones who don’t and believe that everything happens for a reason.

If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it.

Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”

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 I saw a young mother

With eyes full of laughter

And two little shadows

Came following after.

Wherever she moved, 

They were always right there

Holding onto her skirts, 

Hanging onto her chair.

Before her, behind her—

An adhesive pair.

“Don't you ever get weary

As, day after day, 

your two little tagalongs

Get in your way?”

She smiled as she shook

Her pretty young head, 

And I'll always remember

The words that she said.

“It's good to have shadows

That run when you run, 

That laugh when you're happy

And hum when you hum—

For you only have shadows

When your life's filled with sun.”

Two Little Shadows

by

Author Unknown

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Letting go

Tonight I don’t want to be strong,

I want to be soft and vulnerable and just want to be held,

strong and tight in a way I know I won’t break, because you won’t hurt me.

I want to be saved and I don’t want to feel ashamed

or feel less of a strong woman for wanting so.

I don’t want to be Wonder Woman tonight,

running a house, single mum, working full time.

No. Tonight I want to be just a girl, no thoughts, no responsibilities.

I want to forget that I am 40 years old, divorced and lonely.

I want to be okay with being fiercely independent and still saying “I miss you”.

I want to melt in your arms and just breathe,

breathe until my heart slows down, as it does when I feel safe.

Tonight, I want to return to softness and love and warm feelings,

I want to ditch any logic.

Can we do that?

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Someone made you feel so small,

They stole your voice away. Made you sorry for being you.

Made you feel that the black eyes and purple evidence of pain that mark you,

are all your fault.

All your fault. 

You were the one that made them hit you, hurt you, beat you black and blue, they say.

They put their virulent-veined faces too close to yours and screamed until spit splashed your face.

The late-night tears and heart cries at the doors of rooms you were locked out of,

tumbling tears puddled on the porcelain tile, making the floor wet with misery and your multiplied loss of dignity. 

First, they take away your you-ness, then they strip you of your family and friends,

under the umbrella of wanting you all to themselves. 

But there is escape, there is a way back to beautiful you. 

to freedom. . . freedom from fear and feeling so low

and the soul-shaking knowledge that someone so hateful would hurt you,

just for being you. 

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Thoughts of you…Saturday Morning in March

Our bodies fit together like a certain madness ,

like fingers intertwined and hidden under covers

On ‘we’ve no plans yet’ Saturday mornings when rain crackles—

like beach fires against the windows..

we lay there, just outside of anxiety’s reach.

Ours would be a beautiful sadness

it’s already there in your eyes

for now-- we fit at least

and the rain doesn’t bother us much at all

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Epitaph

by Merrit Malloy

Original Language English

When I die

Give what's left of me away

To children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me,

Put your arms

Around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words

Or Sounds.

Look for me

In the people I've known

Or loved,

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on your eyes

And not on your mind.

You can love me most

By letting

hands touch hands,

By letting

Bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go

Of children

That need to be free.

Love doesn't die,

People do.

So, when all that's left of me

Is love,

Give me away.

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