Holding

I will hold you and love you

My little child

I will keep the critic at bay

I will tell you over and over

How brave and strong you were to survive all this

And when those forces around you

That do not see you

And know so little of your inner life

Try to tell you you are nothing

I will hold up a shield

And I will deflect those arrows

So poison barbs no longer lodge so deeply within

I will remind you of how the adult inside you turned against you too one day

Or was just an internalisation of your mother’s shaming voice

And I will be for you

Finally

The force of love

Summoned from deep within

Who can hold you through your pain

Teach you to trust your reality

And affirm you from inside

I will never let you go

And I will

Always always always

Love and protect you