The best you could do

When the undertow comes

Dragging my body out

To deep deep seas

Where every cell in my being dissolves

I am undone

Feeling the power and will of my life receeding

Washed away

By a hidden tide

All solid land has disppeared

So how can I

Summon the will to stand?

Upon this quicksand

Scattered sensations capture my attention

Fixing it in place

Deep inside my body

Making it nearly impossible to

Pull my focus

Into this world

That at times seems such a place of

Disaster

Yet at others

Benign

Full of softly falling love

Present in light and silence

And then there are times

When

Loving hearts reach out

They may not know the words to say

Still they try

But some words feel like knives

That cut the bindings from

Hurting flesh

Tender bruised wrapped up places

Where psychic injuries dwell

But at least you are trying

Although your words sometimes feel like wounds

How could I expect you to know

All the convoluted spaces where my soul has dwelt

And the pain that sometimes haunts me

That feels to you like aberration

It is asking entirely too much

And so I am grateful for the care you show

With the reaching

And I look on times

That effort angered me

And I see how my hurting

Became hurt directed towards you

Someone who was innocent though ignorant

And tried your very best