That is it
Today at the store a complete stranger came up to me
and said: “When I look at you, I see beauty.”
All I could do was thank them for their compliment,
and it took all my will to not let them see the effect it had.
Some would have felt pride or been fulfilled in some shallow way,
but the remark left me feeling raw and strangely empty.
I realized that this person had more courage than I’d ever had
to admit what they were feeling without fear or a sense of shame.
As they put it, they said what they felt, and that was it.
That was it.
If only things truly were so simple and straightforward.
Given half the chance, I'd offer up everything I ever owned
to hear that coming from the lips of one I’d ever coveted.
“If I could hear that just once before I leave this world,
I would have truly lived.”
Like the stranger at the store, I'm saying what I feel, and that is it.
That is it. There is nothing more to tell.
