You are Healing When

You are no longer running

For your life in 5 am moonlight,

Or falling asleep via Miller High Life;

When you are no longer exploding

Like a delicate puffball,

At the slightest unexpected touch,

Injecting toxic spores into the gentle breeze.

                                       And after that lifetime, another one:

 Tempest trembling

Sultry tears wash your neck and face, 

Sinking march always homeless 

It seems in May rains;

Pouring over books,

Candlelit garage meditating

Silence housing

Night’s aching echoes;

Amygdala learns to signal 

Prefrontal Cortex rather than your Hypothalamus;

Reality is presently grounded

Rather than past rooted.

                                                               And after that lifetime, another one:

Orient towards light

Laughing, listening, focusing, 

Conveying I’m here connected to you--

Accepting healthy vulnerability. 

Next, drain blood, as if you have cancer,

And strain out all the lead

Till light calm falls over you like dew

And spring water pools in your heart. 

And finally realize resilience is

A choice admiring you each morn in the mirror;

That all the elements of your trauma

Must be cradled like a beloved child in your lap.