Your Place

This piece came out of watching the introduction to a poem by Sarah Kay (this poem, which is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-8jtBOorpE), which she said was inspired by the line "... Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else.", from "Detail of the Woods" by Richard Siken. As soon as she said this line, I paused the video and wrote this poem. It's sort of written to a friend of mine, and came out of an hour spent thinking while weeding at work today. It took the one line of inspiration to knock everything together in my head.

Your place is not inside of me.

I am not your home,

your haven,

your safe space.

I cannot be the white knight

who saves you from yourself.

You've tried to burrow deep,

to find yourself within me;

you've used me on your way

to self-discovery.

Your place is not inside of me.

You cannot use me

to deposit your emotions

when they grow too much for you,

can't let the overflow of pain

seep under my skin

and pool between the beatings of my heart.

I can't take all the parts of yourself that you hate.

Your place is somewhere else,

somewhere only you can find.

Your place is somewhere you'll feel safe,

where you can be yourself,

and feel everything you need to feel

to get yourself through this.

But that place is not here,

it is not me.

I can't protect you forever.

I need to let go of you,

and you need to let go of me.