Every unkind word you say

Lodges like a grain of sand

In the corners of my heart

With each grain lodged

I stand a little shorter

My eyes a little more downcast

Years go by

The grains grow heavy

Until I cannot bear the weight

I collapse from within

A jagged, broken thing

All callous and no heart

A dark night follows

A waking nightmare

Of exquisite, awful agony

Then one day, a little light

Shines through a crack

And I emerge

With help, I start to dislodge the grains

Shining sunshine on these calcified hurts

Until I see them as they truly are

They are not me

And I not them

And so the grains, become pearls of wisdom