Take Care (Please)

Take care when you break my heart

shelter it with kindness

rip it apart in one fell swoop

so the pain can abate.

Ignore the tears streaming from my eyes

the tremble of my lip

embrace me once

and turn to go

for I cannot take this.

Where once I smiled and played

now I force myself

to walk each day

as though there was reason

as though there was hope.

Take care when you break my heart

for I know no way forward

from the dance,

from the kiss.

With each passing day

my life will heal

my tears will cease to fall

but still there will be a hole

where your tenderness is missing.

©Jay-lyn Doerksen

Oct. 24/17