Sometimes Love Isn’t Enough To Heal You

sometimes
love isn’t enough
sometimes
love doesn’t heal all wounds
or rebuild all bridges
or conquer
anything at all

sometimes we can’t cross the ocean between two souls
love won’t fix your resistance to having children
your desire to not be married
love can’t thrive if you are travelling the world
and they don’t understand your thirst
love won’t close the gap
between your desire for sunny beaches
and his for snowy mountains

sometimes love isn’t enough
to heal the pain
of the night you stopped choosing her
for a few moments,
hours

love showed up the moment you saw him
I pick this one
your heart whispered
yes but now your gut is screaming
be free
be with you
love isn’t enough
you are
for you love them
but you must love you, too

love won’t erase
your stubborn ingrained beliefs
love won’t heal you
from the pain of your childhood
that’s your lifelong job
heal yourself
first

love won’t keep you safe
from settling
into a life you don’t want
love won’t silence
your gut screaming
no
no
no

this isn’t it
love isn’t enough
to survive off
you need your emotional needs met
like you need air to breathe
water to drink
the ocean to exist

love won’t hide you
from being hurt
by the one who said I do

love won’t protect you
from your body knocking you down
because you weren’t paying attention
to the sirens of pain

love will not do any of this
because love from another
is not enough
to sustain you
your breathing heart

this
is the paradox
of human existence
for love is life force
yet this kind of love
can only come
from within your own
bones
your own
veins
this love
lives in the space between
the layers of your skin
where your heart
meets your head
somewhere between
the poems that are the lines
of your body
this love
this
is enough.