The Scar of Devotion
Photo from cottonbro studio via Pexels
You have been loyal to people who did not know your name
You have been loyal to ideas that never intended to keep you alive
There is terrible intimacy
In giving your life to something that does not want it
It is a kind of prayer
A kind of longing that has forgotten
What it means to be full
You are learning now
That devotion is not always sacred
Sometimes it is a wound you protect
A wound you keep feeding
Because pain
At least pain
Will not abandon you
There are nights
When you want to set every name you've ever whispered on fire
Only to finally see their smoke leave your lungs
And rise like a prayer no god will claim.
