To Listen To Anyone

to listen to anyone, if you would hear that person, you must enter their heart. to stare a living breathing person in the face, and say “you can talk to me,” is not enough; will never be enough. you don’t have to look through their eyes. you don’t have to wear their shoes. you will sit, palms settled on your knees, and you will crawl inside their chest and the very marrow of their bones. and you will hear their heart beat for you, their blood curl around your pulsing form. and you will not see any of this. it is a fierce and beautiful thing when years later, their teeth glimmer white with tears and you still reside in their skeleton, their nervous system wrapped around your wrists, but they have found their way back, and they made a home in their veins for themself, too.