Heart Crumbs

My heart crumbled

When I had to walk on those eggshells.

Every word you didn't like,

A land mine ,

Every phrase that didn't flatter you,

A sure explosion

To crumble my heart

While I took shelter behind walls of silence.

My heart crumbled

When I had to stand before that critical eye.

Each flaw of mine,

Put on display,

Each stregnth of mine,

Buried alive

Until all I saw were weaknesses,

And my courage suffocated in the dirt.

Take those crumbs, 

And follow them to their source,

This half-beaten, half-dead muscle.

And with your gentle ear,

Quick to listen

But not quick to anger,

Remind it that it is

Half-victorious and half-alive.

And with your lovely words

Of truthful praise

And positive guidance,

Dig up that happiness from the ground,

And remind that crumbling heart

That is a muscle

Made for strength

Strengthened by persistence.

Return those crumbs 

From whence they came,

And mend that heart

With something calm, considerate, and compassionate.