I was sitting as T.A. in an English class as they discussed the next book they are going to read. In preparation, the teacher created an assignment prompting her students to write a poem about a person who has influenced their lives, in good ways or bad. I had nothing else to do, so I began to write.
Through your destruction,
I learned to grow.
I learned to put on a face when that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Through your destruction,
I was destroyed.
My heart broken no more than it was torn
by the clashing decisions about when to give up,
if I haven't already.
Through your destruction,
I built myself up again.
I distinguished between those who would help me through it
and those like you.
I made choices for myself about my future,
about the person I want to be;
choices about how to deal with the present, move on, stay still,
overcome the past.
Through your destruction,
I first learned to love, to ignore the hard times.
I learned how not to hate, how to settle.
Don't get these confused;
they are very different.
