Breaking shame

Breaking shame By Christopher Ross Livingstone

Bursting into life 

The light of day 

Early morning risers catching the worm

Bright eyes into the sun

Shoulders on high

Ready and bracing

To face the day 

But often there's a story of the untold

A story of two halves 

For those 

Feeling broken or torn

Like a cracked ceramic figurine on show

Only glued to cover the crack

Living a lie under cracking of the glaze

Dreading to face another day

When those stories aren't expressed

By an other ear

Underneath 

The strumming of a the heart

In the quiet light of day

Internally soaring 

The pain goes on

This is one of the great injustices

Of the times 

Only perpetuating 

Disconnection and a lack of sharing

In the stories of the never told

Bring noting but tears 

We all need to hear 

With open arms,

A helping hand 

Opens hearts 

Like a friend 

For us to experience

Holding a space

With a listening ear

Letting healing in

And an easing of the shame

Damage is cast over broken ceramics 

Broken we are not

Because we've been told to live in a way 

That doesn't sustain our purest of hearts 

Beating apart 

And torn apart 

We lived in a pain 

That would anguish any heart

Tear those images apart 

And forced expectation 

Tales from the expectations

Of those norms and customs  

Said upon us 

And power over us 

From a power that is apart from us

Telling us to to conform 

Shaming us for not conforming

Over time

We'll leave those ideals aside

From power without compassion

All we needed 

Was a little reconnection

And stories to be told