The Giant In Your Skull Poem by Sumitra Mishra (nee Balakrishnan)

The problem is a giant you carry in your skull,
its shadow pooling at your feet until you think
you are the shadow. But the heart knows better.

Yours was the first gaze I held with a mouthful of eternities.
Our love arrived when we had abandoned hope,
in the middle of a day like any other.

That, I believe, is part of its miraculous nature.
Do not underestimate yourself.
What the mind builds into a fortress,
The heart has already unbuilt with its quiet drumming.

We heal fast - our scar tissue sheds fast,
We do not hold on to dead.
This is how we mend: we kiss with forgiveness,
hold each other as if embracing hope.
Our arms serve as bandages,
pressing promises between us like flowers in a book.

I will not be afraid of your scars.
I know sometimes it is still hard to let me see you
in all your cracked perfection.
But please realize:
whether you shine brighter than the sun
or crumble into my lap with a thousand pains in the night,
you are the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed.

The problem is sometimes bigger in our head.
But the heart knows better.
I will love you in the calm and in the storm, and after.