Address Don't Redress Poem by Tony Cemaluk

Address, don't redress,
Don't dress the wound in Sunday best.
Don't wrap the lie in finer thread,
Call the sore by its soiled name, not what is sweet and safe to face.

Address, don't redress,
The mirror cracks when you undress
The truth laid bare before the sun —
No cute cloth can cure the cut. Care
Lied to, denied, derided, lost fast

Touch it plain, touch it bare,
Let wind, let light, find the root there first.
A deep wound, addressed once, closes from the root,
Redressed, it festers and grows from the root again.