peace comes after we stop
giving up so much of ourselves
to purchase love from someone else.
I will be no less myself now
than yesterday or tomorrow;
you are welcome to stay or go,
as you please. I will show you
the best and the worst of myself,
all of the joy and the wreckage.
what I am is complex and beautiful
for its complexity, for where
the treasures are buried as well as
where the land mines lurk,
waiting to peel limbs or love from you.
the choice is yours, I will be
no less joyful or wrecked for it.