After Pain

a poem by Samihah Pargas

When the healing starts to gold
and honey begins to pour from your mouth.
Your eyes. Your heart and your soul.
Don’t let the past you’ve endured make you afraid to share it
with others
Don’t hesitate to welcome life back inside when it comes
knocking on your door.
You deserve to start afresh.
Walk out of your old life
with its pain, tragedy and fears.
Guard your heart.
and let it stay soft with memory.
Practice the lessons you learnt about giving too much.
and open your hands.
Walk into the now.
The ever new
with your scars and secret prayers and untamed dreams and
stitched broken things.
Embrace.
You are not the same
although you carry what you were, somewhere on you.
Somewhere inside.
How wondrous you look.
wearing your stories on your skin and in your eyes and through
your words.
Unafraid.
Beautifully.

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