Reach down into your heart
Down into the library where you keep your precious things
Past the archives of mental pictures of the people you love smiling
Past the lost and found
Just south of the place where you know it doesn’t matter
And that it will be ok
Reach down into your heart
And ask yourself
Are they among the galleries of perfect spring days
When you think of your heroes
Do they ever have ties on
Are they giving interviews from some mason built irony about how they disagree
Are they drunk and mean at some party taking hipstomatic pictures of absently lit cigarettes
They should be teaching
They should be inspiring action or solving problems
They should be making children laugh
The view is disappointing
We have to turn the other cheek
If I could hold you while you cry it all away
I’d be there with soft arms and radical empathy
But there are too many of you
No matter how much there is of me
Anyway
If you believe like I do
I am always holding you
Just as the turtles are holding me
You should know
I don’t have heroes anymore
I do not have gods or overlords
I have love
And a menagerie of talismans
That I say are fraught with power
But are really only reminders of love
Reach down into your heart
Massage it back to life
Brush away the plaque
Jericho the barricades
Quiet down the cannonades
And listen
That is not crying
That is not something you saw on the internet or cable tv
That is not the song they want you to sing
That is the song of yourself
The voodoo that you do
It has been lost in the din
It has been succubus sucked
It has been so brave in the dark
Yelling out the chorus with equal passion time and time again
Dig that nasty base line
Let it resonate
You are a beast, a singular creation of power and portence
If no one else has said it today
I am amazed
You are amazing
Believe what they say
Or believe what empowers you
It is all made up
Only you make it true
Just do what you do
You do you
Reach down into your heart
Reach past the way it is
Beyond the broken dreams
The embarrassments
The learned lie of failure
The struggle for perfection
Manifested as popularity
Reach down and want the things you want
Define your own dreams
Paper is not people
The journey to a piece of gum is little more than the anticipation of aspartame
But the journey to flight . . .
The Tao of freedom . . .
The path to a durable happiness . . .
To love my family
To say what is inside of me
These are precious things
Reach down
Because you know it isn’t as close to the surface as it should be
Reach down
And resolve to feel more
Reach down
And fail spectacularly
Reach down into your heart
And love defenselessly
Be afraid, but do it anyway
Reach down into your heart and be
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