How Things Diminish

There is a word of warning I would give to you
Your heart can grow cold-I know
One day it is spring in your heart
There is sun and green
And a song that sings itself through you
Bubbling over because you care so much
Your caring is a tangible thing
Running through your fingers like sand or oil or love
Given a little too late

You want to reach out and give to others
But when you do you find out that people
Take away the bits and pieces of you
Until there is nothing left but a vague feeling that things
Are no longer the same

One summer you are lying in a field
Being part of the sky and drifting
The next summer you are merely
Lying in a field watching clouds go by
The next summer you don’t even go to the field
Do you see?
It goes away, this feeling of closeness
This desire to give
Through hurt or will or no fault of your own
Someday someone will say to you
“No, you can’t shut yourself away from me”
Only to push you away when you get too close
And you will stand there thinking
There are so many things your heart would like to say
But there will be no words left.

-Zoe Richardson