Healing Amidst Distress | Pain with a Purpose

By Sterling

Healing Amidst Distress

I had to free myself from you

I will always continue to try and scrub you off of me

Wash you out of me

Wipe you off my lips

I try to erase you from my thoughts

I know these things will never be successful

When I see you in public my body goes stiff

You added a stain to my already soiled cloth

That tainted my ever so “pure” existence

Right along with the rest of the splotches

That no amount of stain remover could ever lift

Why you treated me like this I have no clue

I didn’t deserve it

I just thought you deserved to be loved to

And you tried to warn me

You showed me the real you

I just didn’t want to believe that it was true

But for whatever your reasoning was to abandon me

And treat me like I don’t exist

I forgave you not because I wanted to

I forgave you because I want to live

Pain with a Purpose

Humans will always ask

Why do we hurt

Did you even think about

How glass must be shattered

Sometimes, into a million pieces

In order to make a mosaic

Our pain is what makes us

A unique

Masterpiece

Sterling is a nursing student turned poet who fell in love with poetry while exploring her small lived time in journalism. Her work reflects her appreciation for both classical and contemporary poetry as she therapeutically purges her emotions about love, abuse, and her place as a black woman in society.

IG: @s.a.w.literature