And isn’t it true for all of us
by Pádraig Ó Tuama
and isn’t it true for all of us
that we need someone
to watch us when we leave
and when we need
to make our own
way home,
and
when we’re making something we can’t see,
or when we’re shaping up to be
a person that can feel
a hundred sorrows and still
get through the day
who could dream a hundred horrors
and make it anyway,
isn’t it true for all of us
that we need a guiding
other,
maybe mother, maybe lover,
maybe nothing other than a stranger,
who could see our fear,
and with kindness then, unfold a welcome,
isn’t it true for all of us
that we need our secrets told
and that without another
to bear witness to the children
that were never born,
and would never be grown-up
we would be alone and lost and cold,
there would be childish hungers left
inside of us,
needing to grow old.