The heart is made to break
and heal
and crack open again and again.
So. I do not want to go tentatively
with you, my love
to open the window of my heart
just a crack
and let you peer
just a little way in.
I want to fling it open,
wide,
the way one might
on a bright spring morning
and let everything be seen.
Perhaps what you’ll find there
will be too much
and tomorrow you’ll end
what has only just begun.
But I will not be afraid
or deterred
for the heart is made to break
and heal
and crack open again and again.
I do not want to hide myself
or quieten myself
or restrain what longs to be said.
I want to be neither careful
nor strategic in my loving,
offering up a measure
of guessed acceptability.
I want to be undefended and honest
and to let what’s in
pour out
without care or worry
that I’m ‘doing it wrong’.
I do not want a cautious love
just as I do not want a cautious life.
Who can stop me
when I have raised my hand
and said
’I am willing!’ I am willing to be heartbroken
again and again.
The heart is made to break
and heal
and there I am free
to love like the birds sing:
bare-breasted
bold
and endlessly optimistic.
I will go fully
or I will not go at all.
Love and courage,
Leah