I took distance to escape your power
As you are yet oblivious to it and ignore
How to use it without hurting me,
Eventually, unwillingly or not.

And with distance came humility
I took a closer look at you, espied
Your delicate solidity, your vulnerability,
The smiles you share, the tears you shed,

The gloom possessing you when you plummet
Into despair, your fragility and the strength
You harvest from within to resurface, carry on.
Your ardour, your passion, the intensity

Of myriad overwhelming feelings confusing you,
Your courage, the resilience of your spirit,
The ineluctable enthusiasm pleading you to breathe
Even when everything around you seems

To fall apart. No one said life would be easy
But neither told you it could be so hard.
You walked your first steps ingenuously,
Innocent and pure until something

Corrupted you. Your mind and the idea
You should be more than what you are,
You are not enough and the possibility
You never will be. I startle at your naivety,

Endeared by how much you look like me,
Enraptured by the perception that you are me,
I startle at the blindness forbidding you to awe
Afore the marvel you already are, the one I see

Each time I look at you and see me.
Humanity, I am utterly in love with you.

[Featured sculpture: by Adam Martinakis]