A Letter to I

Dear me of the past, the present, and the future

Have you had enough water today?

Did you sleep well last night?

How are your friends doing? Your true friends

The you from now in this moment may be different than what you know

But he’s still doing his best to care about you

To make sure you got through the day

Make friends and get over old ones

Eat good food and read happy books

Because you deserve that, all of you do

And to the me in the mirror

The me who wishes his reflection could reach out and strangle him

To curse him and tell him to accept his imperfect reflection as it is

The me who wished to be a police officer

The me who wished to be a pilot

The me who dances and sings when no one’s looking

The me who cracks himself up with the jokes he makes and gets excited for when he can tell his friends

They all stand before this mirror

A gateway to the past, present and what’s to come

To hate one of you is to hate all of you

The me who dreamed of happy parents and the me who fought addiction share the same blood

The me who wished for a new life where he didn’t suffer and the me who wanted to fight life and persevere through it all feel the same beating in their chest

To make myself bleed, to drown my sorrows with alcohol, to run away from it all

The baby born into this world is you as well

This imperfect world that forces those that live in it to be imperfect as well

You are imperfect and I love that

You fit right in

No one is perfect, and not many get it right the first time

So that baby, born from your mom and dad was imperfect too

He had no choice

Nobody does

But when your parents see that child they fill with pride and joy

No matter how he may treat them or act, that is still their baby

So when will you stop hurting their child?