How to Break Back Open

From: Prompt

NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 2

How to Break Back Open

Those few months were an oasis, a paradise

Unmedicated strong emotion, I came alive

For the first time. I lived with arms open,

My whole heart exposed, I jumped

And fell; I broke down.

Cracked bones heal by becoming

Encased and unmovable, untouched

and shriveling. I followed the

doctor’s instructions; I became encased

and unmovable, untouched and shriveling

for too long, just in case, even after

the cast was removed.

I kept reading the wrong instructions:

On how to release strong emotions,

to lift my arms from my sides,

How to break my chest back open,

To find the hiding pieces of my heart.

No one else could articulate the correct steps.

I had to pull the instruction manual from the past

And gasp, and cry with joy over this talent

I already had. I followed the steps and burst

Back open; glittering, sparkling, gleaming

More clearly than before. I’ve always known the

Instructions; I never needed anyone else’s manual.