A Toast To What Once Was — And Is No Longer
For anyone who has loved and lost and learned to live again
My heart is beating inside my chest I swear I once gave it all to you Yet, find it beating as though it never left A broken rhythm since we’ve been through
Your pain weighs heavier than mine ever will And my love is stronger than you’ll ever see clear My heart on my sleeve leaks a bright red spill Cut against the barbed wire you fashion of fear
My love is a thing you can neither see nor hear A bright flashing light against the darkness of pain I’ve spent years of my life wishing you near Strawberry stained lips still taste the shape of your name
I toast what we once were with a glass of champagne The sweet clash against bitter — can you still taste it? Then stretch into child’s pose and connect with my breath It seemed a better idea than just getting wasted
I once drank away sorrows and chased after pleasure And held myself tightly through nightscapes of terror I held every man up to your measure Until finally I met my own eyes in the mirror
Now I nourish with sweat instead of the fall of my tears I’m healing this heart because I won’t find another One day, we’ll love with more hope than fear But we both know that we won’t love each other.
© Crystal Jackson 2021
