Burned

Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash

You will learn, as I have,
Love cannot be earned —
only freely given,
without condition or expectation.

Look at my heart
(covered in proud flesh)
which has shattered countless times
— I have put her back together with sheer will.

I do not regret loving you well —
my pain is a commemoration after all;
the curse and the blessing
being one and the same.