i am numb

heart muscles limp
tears all spent
from
feeling
and feeling
and feeling

there are times
where the grooves
of grief
carve so down into
my deep,
i don’t think I will
ever straighten them out
or remember
what it
feels to feel
“normal”

and then I remember
somewhere around
the coordinates
of
I don’t think I can take
it anymore, it hurts too much
and
awakened compassion
and
humanity
and
Love-

that if you are living
aware
and alive
in this world,
“normal”
is not meant
for you

and the hurt
that clings
to the cut of
soul’s deep

-empathy’s antidote to ambivalence and apathy-

is the very stuff
absolutely required
to help heal
help feel
help fill
our world