you are blood

i can tell that you'd stick a fork in your thigh
just to feel something different
the look in your eyes tells me that something is amiss...

on the paper, beside marital status, it reads 'separated'
perhaps that's where the hurt lies
my heart ached for you when i read it
because you could have just written 'single' and satisfied the question

i realized today that you're 33 years old
hardly the young guy i still picture you as in my head
we didn't have much interaction when i was younger
but i still wanted to be you...you were so cool

and you still are, but you've lost yourself
you're still the one who makes everyone laugh
but it seems as if you haven't laughed yourself in ages

i wonder what it's like
inside that head of yours
filled with fears and phobias
voices telling you about dust, and disease, and incurable things

you're so fragile
i wonder if everyone else sees it?
do they realize that you need love?
what am i going to do about it?

am i just going to write on this screen?
am i going to pretend that i don't see the hurt?
no.
never.

we are not the result of our parents' mistakes
we are the result of something more special....
something other-worldly.
we are not defined, i say, by our failures
we are not confined to our boxes if we so choose
what you can't see is what lays directly in front of my eyes...

someone special. someone extraordinary.
just waiting to break out of the fear.
waiting to reclaim something that was taken from him too long ago

i believe that you will find what you're looking for.
i will help you if i can. i will take your hand and guide you, if i can.

i will do these things because i want to.
i will do these things because you are family.

because you are blood.