Luceo Non Vero Poem by Lauren Harper

Leceo no vero
I shine, not burn.
I thought you were my protection.
Really you were my grenade.
I put everything I had into you charging you like a battery.
You didn't mind, didn't care that I was left
Until you struck a match and ran expecting me to come out unscathed.
See it doesn't matter that you said sorry or that you didn't mean to.
What's done is done.
I've been burned to the ground blown into a thousand pieces.
Yet you tell me to find the tape and wonder why pieces are missing and why parts are not working the same.
You know as well as I that the pieces and parts didn't work right from the start.
How do you expect to break a broken thing a mangled thing and assume it will come out just fine.
You can't set a fire and expect the smoldering thing, the broken thing to be okay
I'm okay. I'm fine. I swear.. I'm not okay. Not even just a little.
Gorilla glue, duct tape, a giant eraser for big mistakes, needle and thread
cannot act as confidence adhesive
Cannot cover the broken veins.
Cannot evaporate all the memories
Cannot stich my soul back together.
Leceo non vero
I shine not burn.
If I tell myself I am a diamond enough
Perhaps I too will not scratch or burn
But add on becoming greater.
I will not deteriorate
I will not falter one step.
I will not allow you to get the best of me.
Everything you throw at me will be added to my collection.
Every ounce of pain I take, morph it like clay press it deep into my soul patching and stitching everything you broke.
Leceo non vero
I shine not burn.