I.
My heart is a bruise,
so charred and raw,
you can’t see
how black and blue it is
underneath the burns.
I don’t want to be touched,
but it needs to be cleansed.
There are claws in there,
from shapeshifting creatures
intent on doing harm.
They look like love in a certain light,
all beauty and seemingly soft petals
many layers deep.
But then, a line is tripped
and comes the change,
pulling lightning from the sky
with their fingertips
to shock me with their talons,
sharp as blades.
II.
I don’t let their claws retract.
They twist so deep
they become part of me,
like poison thorns, pushing
and pulling at my tenderness
until it becomes a bloody mess.
And all the lovelessness poured on
only makes more sharp edges,
like a bullet fragmenting
when it hits a surface,
to destroy many parts at once.
But I won’t let the bullets
hit anyone else,
for my God makes me
a shield.
III.
For all the targets
I have been at war
with those who can’t hold
their own pain,
I am not empty at the core.
The living God of creation
lives in me,
and He takes every hit I sustain.
If not for His strength,
I’d have perished long ago.
His is the victory that I live!
IV.
For what is there to live for
but to love anyway?
I don’t know.
Love, even with shrapnel in your flesh
and a bullet in your precious heart
hellbent on tearing you apart.
Love until your last breath.
At least then, the monsters
can’t make you into one of them.
© Season Naify, 2025
“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven.”
Matthew 5:43-45, ESV
(The word for “sons” in Greek is Huios, which can also mean children, or offspring.)
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Revelation 22:12, NKJV
Season For God 
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