Felt (a poem)

I didn’t know

 Healing 

Meant acknowledging, 

Feeling.

I didn’t know

Healthy 

Meant painful;

Just now the stabbing isn’t 

Stealthy. 

She said,

“Feelings just want to be felt.”

I felt it, 

Over and over 

Like a spring-fed river 

I wondered where was the end

And more bafflingly, where the beginning

Was I a fool?

Of course.  

Was I misled?

No doubt. 

Was this love cruel? 

As a thumbscrew. 

With hope I fed 

This noisome Styx 

And drank from it till 

I felt sick.