All I Need

What is my value?

And to what do I owe my strength?

Perhaps I can list the names

of the people who share my own blood,

those who have seen me laugh and cry,

or even people who have thrown me down

in order to stand tall.

But the blood of the covenant

runs thicker than water in the womb,

and still the venom of a snake

clogs my arteries

and my throat

in despair and regret.

Spite thrown towards me gives me no pleasure

besides the blood that rushes to my face

to throw knives from my tongue.

Perhaps my value lies in the things

that I hold and care for,

and the money that remains in my pocket

after spending so much more.

But the All-Seeing Eye

remains too watchful and too careful

for it to lack suspiciousness

and how I need to rid myself of it

the moment it touches my palms.

What I need is not what others want me to need

and the physical world holds no more magic

than it did when my own fell apart.

School glue did not piece me back together

and resentful words shattered me further.

I look not for the glittering of fool’s gold,

nor am I lost

though my wanderlust runs deep

For my stability was not created from rock or cement,

but from the bones within my body

and the love I have learned

to give to myself.

For, if deserted in my own mind

with a storming sea around me,

and no one in sight,

I could live without the world just fine

and give up

everything in a blink

and cower in a coffin

of blankets made of my own fears

But to stay alive,

and have the will to find food for my soul

and shelter from the wild

I require nothing

but unrelenting love for myself

and the knowledge

that I am everything

that I need.