For You Who Are About to Give Up

Do it. Give up

the old ghosts, the old fears; give up

the shadowy house of childhood,

the voices like knives spilled in the kitchen;

give up the stories

you never meant to be, your father's

rage, your mother's silence inside you.

Stay, stay

in this one world

but give it up, give it up to wonder.

I am here. I will hold you

through the hard part. I will thumb away

the cold thorns from your face.

And then,

my love, when you are ready,

when you've told yourself

no one is ever ready,

give up

that life you never meant to be,

those clothes that have worn you

like old ghosts, those dreams

you have carried in you like winters.

Give up

and walk out through the rivers

and look at it, that old moon

in the spruces. She is trying, she is still trying

to tell you: like a child,

like a bride stepping

from a wedding dress, give up

every heft you have borrowed

and live the life you have imagined.

In your life is where the dead are saved.

--Joseph Fasano