Road to Recovery

You will get better, they said.
Problem is, under the weight of trauma,
an identity is hidden by the scope
of medicines, woes, the mounting
of decades of trying to piece together
what happened.

We are not ourselves at our most
barren moments of wounding.

The road to recovery?
It’s a jagged line. The items we carry
are not left at the side of the road, but
managed instead. These cuts can’t be expressed
in a nursery rhyme. One can try.

Someone made Jane Eyre
step right up in the chair.
What comes next, who can say,
then they sent her on her way.

The truth is told in proverbs. A farmer
went to scatter seed. Problem is, there was
no seed. Much less a farmer. Metaphors
are the only way to package some experiences

lest we rise out the gate, spend every
word, then sputter out. Fiction is so much
more comfortable as a delivery service.

Some folks are not available
for the truth. That doesn't mean
there isn't healing to come.