exhale

❝ come here
let me hold you
let me wash the dust from your feet
wipe the tracks from your cheeks
soothe your aching hands.

i have heard you screaming in the deep night
in the hollow of the wood
but you have found your way out now
and these shadows hold nothing 
except a peace you are allowed to trust
is real
is true
is lasting.

here you are at last
and i do not begrudge you the wait
a heart is a heavy burden*
but so too is a mind ill at ease.

but here
lay it down
lay it all down
let it rest in the cool dark earth
let it root deep elsewhere
untwine it from your bones.

it is not you and you are not it
though you have grown so close
you may be forgiven the confusion.

here is a knife to cut away what you cannot relinquish.

​i promise it will not hurt. ❞ 

—i promise i love you too much for that.

*Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hiyao Miyazaki