This piece of prose poetry was written as a part of my series on finding self-acceptance after trauma. Poems from this series touch on themes of abuse, trauma, healing, mental health, and sexuality. This poem asks the reader to think about the balance of life. The careful scale that holds the good memories on one side and the sad ones on the other.
Paper Wings
The morning sun shines through a window pane in winter
and warms the wooden floorboards with persistence.
You find yourself drawn into its glow like a moth to a flame.
You are soothed by it, and by its warmth, you are softly embraced.
Yet…
In the cracked heat of a summer afternoon when the ardent sun pours its rays onto your face
You turn away.
You cool yourself in the shade of a tree for refuge from the burn.
Without the darkness,
Without a cool respite,
You would wither beneath the unrelenting fervent heat of the same sun that calls to your bare feet on the cold floors when the winter chill seeps into your bones.
Akin to the moth who flies to the light by the door on the darkest of nights,
and dies
leaving nothing but papery skin in its wake.
You too spend your life pining after the light
And when you reach it…
When you touch it…
You have already run out of time.
I am here today to say,
I hope you remembered to thank the darkness on your back along the way.
