Today is not over yet,

Which means yesterday may have been the hardest day of your life,

As if you were driving down a never-ending dead end, stuck in reverse;

But you are still here.

 

You can’t recall the time your mother held you out of the bedroom window,

The blaze within threatening to scorch you, your cradle and home,

The scent of smoke on your baby clothes has long since gone;

But you are still here.

 

And that day in the schoolyard, when the popular crew said, “everyone but you”,

Sticks and stones they say - but their word weapons went deep,

And you still claw at those lesions, pull them apart till they weep;

But you are still here.

 

Cast your mind back to that summer, when every atom of air in the house was still,

The regular place at the table again unfilled, as it had been for days

And the blood love you craved seamed lost in a searing haze;

But you are still here.

 

Remember that time that love tore you apart like a butterfly in a hurricane,

Leaving your heart desiccated and scattered by all winds four?

Joy and happiness were gone, and the sun would shine no more;

But love is a boomerang; and you are still here.

 

When that car crash took you within a gnats’ whisker of whispering hello to god,

And saying goodbye to all you cherished in this godforsaken domain,

You could not see past the next injection to numb the pain;

But you rose again; and you are still here.

 

You never got to enjoy the blossom, of the sweet rose you both planted as one,

Surrendered by its seed bed long before it had time to bloom,

A part of you was also took too soon;

But you are still here.

 

How could you ever recover from that torturous, treacherous sight,

There lay your lover, asleep in the arms of another – it hurt so much,

Your sanctuary defiled, your own home and bed, a smouldering church;

But you are still here.

 

And how can you neglect, let alone forget, the torment of which you saw no end,

Seeing only the backs of a room full of people you called “friends.”

Desolated by desertion, in arctic isolation, pariah close to the end;

Then you felt enfolding arms; and you are still here.

 

Revisit that night standing by his bed, your rock slipping like sand through your hands,

When you screamed into the darkest of night skies – why, why, why?

How could you get through this alone, with him, cold flesh and bone?

But he’d taught you to carry on; and you are still here.

 

Darker days than these have passed, the night did not consume or last,

The clouds that fill your sky will fade to a lighter hue,

And you, the sky, in a peaceful powder blue;

You, will still be here.

 

And YOU are still here

And you are STILL here

And you are still HERE

STAY HERE