Open up again, you who’ve been so hurt,
trust, take the risk of being hurt again. 
Truth is painful but when 
it doesn’t kill you, it’s healing.

The many sordid traumas she keeps still hidden 
deep in her psyche beneath so many layers of 
misplaced shame, the whispered lies, the secret 
betrayals, abuses to her flesh her spirit her air her 
water her seagulls her grass her rocks her trees 
her wind her soul.

Only the betrayed can see it. Only the forlorn 
can feel it. Only the forsaken can understand 
it. That bitterness in her smile, that grief in her 
eyes. You’ve been there, haven’t you? I know 
you have. I can feel it in the spaces between
your bones. You recognize her anguish 
in your own. Try to run, you can’t run, 
try to hide, you can’t hide. You can’t run, 
you can’t hide from a crushed spirit. She didn’t 
deserve this. She shrank into her fists, swore 
she’d never leave herself so vulnerable, so 
innocent, so open, so unconditional, swore she’d 
never be a victim for love again. 
America is suffering. 
America is grieving from a broken heart.

Who broke it, so many times, in such cruel ways?
How do you heal a country?  How do you heal
a country with a broken heart?