fragment

I wish I could fragment myself,

Split myself in two,

In twelve,

In one hundred and forty four thousand,

In order to take on the suffering

Of each and every one of them:

The disaffected.

The disenchanted.

The disenfranchised.

The depressed, the isolated, and the melancholy.

The used, the abused, and the broken-hearted.

The maltreated.

The malnourished.

The maladjusted.

To each and every one of them,

To each and every one who hurts,

Who spends each day in flames,

I would reach out my hands and say,

“Let me hold you.

Place your heart in my care, and I will guard it for you.

I will make it my own.

I will burn in your place.”

I would suffer,

and they would be made whole,

and learn how to love and to live,

and to teach and to give,

and to fragment themselves in order

to teach others how to fragment themselves

and to heal themselves and to give of themselves

so that they might one day, too,

watch after the hearts of others.