How Simple It Could Be Poem by Linda Engwall

It has become so complicated
Maneuvering around a relationship
When fundamental need are not being met

You run the gamut of rationalization
From understanding their position
To not feeling you are getting the same from them

The utter frustration felt is hard to articulate
When both sides are determined to be heard
And yet no one is no longer listening

Positioning myself to be understood
I have tried to mend this tear
Some days it is manageable
Other days I am not so lucky

I liken it to a cut that has healed on its own
Soon as you bang it
Once again it splits opens

Out comes the poison
What was once held together barely
Has now erupted
Words of hurt are spoken
Exchanges only resulting in anger

So I breathe in as much logic as I find I have left
To understand this isn’t all really directed at me
Takes pure concentration on my part
Once again that understanding I long for eludes me

To have empathy for us both
Our struggle in our outside world we then bring it inside to each other
Knowing I cant have started this when you came in looking for something
I didn’t know you need
My mature person, when I can tap into her, tells me that is so

Round and round we go though
The wound is still so tender
Yet we keep forgeting that
We want, we expect, it to still be the same

And if it can’t be does that mean
It has no value anymore
We no longer find we bite our tongue
We go where it is dangerous

Because we have to know once those words are spoken
We can’t take them back
Surely we know all they do is weaken us

Somehow I am sure if we could step outside and see
I would surely know how simply it could be