If I were you

If I were you 
and standing in the place you stand
I’d hope for people who would recognise
my need to be a hundred 
contradictory things;

to cry because I need to,
to rest because I’m weary,
to be cheerful when I’m wanting 
to defy my grief,
to be busy, just because it lubricates
the tyranny of time’s slow turning.

If I were you, 
I’d need a hug 
in eloquence of silence
for silence shared is more articulate than words.

And I would crave normality;
to talk of small things like the weather,
not because the big things are too scary
but because the small things still exist
and life, of sorts, goes on.

And yet we know we are not you.
You may need different things 
that we could scarcely know, 
and so, 
we simply wait and pray.

Our hearts, and house, 
are open to you
any day.