if all things heal

maybe we do too. Moments like lifetimes spent circling each other in a size-up melted down, anger and fear repurposed, to create two new creatures who play. See them run and tumble into one another, swept off their feet and then safely righted again as forms of joy.

How long has been spent picking at scabs and counting the hours? Tugging at the stitches to see who bleeds first, and with it a trickle growing into a tide of resentment. How can trust build under such hostile conditions?

But if we could. If we could stand still and face each other, hand to heart, heart to god. Eyes locked where blue meets brown like ocean and earth, two unstoppable forces that coexist with the barest of touch. No need to press the shared scars that faded so differently across our bodies, because we know that sometimes scars can be beautiful: the lovely ghost white of a heart just above your lip where you squared up with gravity. The battlefield written across my knees when falls became stories of getting back up.

If pain has left you tender, if pain has left you wise —

If you need to tread softly until the ground looks more even —

Let time be our judge and jury. I'll see you on the road somewhere we can collapse into laughter, stare at the stars, and tell each other: We were perfect, weren't we?