Unprotected

You live long enough
You love hard enough
It’ll break you.
There’s no other way

You know it’s true
If you’ve ever loved past the pain
The part that feels the beauty
The part that commits truly

Has no guards to cover its tenderness
Ït cannot live behind a glass
Instead, smiling at vulnerability,
Blooming like a flower in the rain

One part invincibility,
Every other part that remains
Framed in aching flesh
Choosing to love, to feel death…

Because only those who love
Can feel what it means to die.
Only Love can
Sing the honest grief of the lost;

Only love is worth that cost.