Life in Small Pieces

It is the only in the small things that we see it
My would-be childs first step, as awesome as an earthquake
The first time I rode a bike, ending up still on a sidewalk.
The first break up when my heart went on a journey
down a dark road alone
When they called me crybaby, or poor, or fatty, or crazy.
and mad me inot an alien
I drank their acid and concealed it

Later
If I faced the death of bombs and bullets, I did'nt do it with a banner
I did it only with a cap to cover the tears that ran down, and my bleeding heart
I di not fondle with the weakness inside me, though it was there
My courage, a small coal that I kept swallowing
When I was nine and my closest friend saved me, and died himself in doing
You fisr told me, it was not his courage alone that saved me
It was his love. He was thirteen but it was his love and your courage
As simple and complicated as the blood that was spilled when the bullet pierced his heart

Later
If I have endured great dispair, then I did it alone
Getting a transfusion from the fire inside of me. Tha last spark
You were still peeling the skin from my hardened heart, and wringing it out like a sock
Of the darkness and secrets that ran deep
Next, with nothintg left I tried to powder my sorrow
You gave it a pat on the back and covered it with a blanket
And after I had slept for a while, I woke to the wings of white roses
And I was transformed

Still later,
When I will face old age and its natural collision
My courage will be shown in little ways
Each spring will be a sword you have sharpened
Those whom I have loved will live like a fever upon my mind
I'll bargain again with the calender, and at the last moment
When death creeps unnoticed in the back door
You will put on your sandals. you will come for me
And we will stride out hand in hand
You will carry me home....