My angel just whispered In my ear and said "You are a sponge" And she downloaded Into my mind Images of me absorbing The energy of others And it all made sense Why I became a nurse And why now I still fight to end World suffering Their pain is my pain
It is overwhelming And even caustic to my soul All the pain and sorrow And I have to rinse out And wring out This sponge frequently To survive And I have to avoid Others with too much drama Their drama becomes my drama Their illness becomes my illness
Most people are oysters And can create a pearl From the torment And then go on with life Or maybe they are coral With a hard outer skeleton But not sponges We just become More and more saturated Heavy with others
And that is why it hurts so much When a beloved person Or pet dies They have permeated all our cells Became part of us We are interwoven So a part of us also dies Leaving big empty holes
But on the flip side Sponges can also absorb love And beauty and peace From pets and nature And when squeezed We share this with the world As art, or compassion, or light
But, lovely, as that is It can't fill the holes And the holes are winning...
barb j beyers 