Sunsets

I remember those quizzes

in the school magazine

Are you a dog or a cat person?

Do you like sunset or sunrise?

Who is your friend and who is your enemy?

I love all the hypotheses, all the possibilities

I live in their imaginative world, and choose

not to face my own realities

I used to love the beauty and melancholy aspects

of sunsets, and the idea of solitude as a way

of true happiness, if I tell myself

“you’re sad but that’s so poetic”

then maybe they will find that, aesthetic.

Like ice-cream,

a smile would be a luxury

I only treated myself on Sundays.

it was how I dealt with pain

I kept them around to keep myself sane

I’d rather build walls and swim away from shore

than letting anyone in when it rains 

now my door is unlocked, my window is wide open

I see the stars, the dancing trees, and the burning Sun

a hermit crab left the ocean to set life on land

they grow and find bigger houses to call home

Now I smile and pat myself on the shoulder

hug my inner child as she grew stronger

Pain is inevitable

but it’s not all that I am.

t.l.