There is a different pain
in understanding
than there is
in blind anger.
Revenge and hatred
rob you of opportunities.
The keep you in limbo, smoldering..
But they also take the edge off
through distraction and action.
Understanding means
you must accept
double the pain.
You must drop to your knees,
you must offer your heart,
Be vulnerable to start
over
again.
There is no immediate-
no direct effect- of understanding
but perhaps humility.
It keeps you not in fire, but in grief.
Both can exist in the same body,
but often
this burns bridges before you can cross them,
Floats signals of smoke before you speak.
We are often trapped then,
to condemn ourselves,
to one or the other:
As the women who react,
or the woman
you can walk over
and away from.
Written from the point of view of a woman living in a world where our emotions are often trivialized, and our experiences minimized.