Photo by Vinicius "amnx" Amano on Unsplash

I Want to Know the Real You

Even if

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

i want to know what’s real,
even if it will hurt me beyond repair.

i want to see the truth behind those covered eyes,
even if they reveal you’re withholding your entire life’s past.

i want to feel what it’s like to walk in your shoes,
even if it gives me blisters on top of blisters on top of calluses.

i want to hear you tell your stories,
without shame and dishonor and embarrassment,
even if they’re gnarly, gruesome, dirty.

i want to tell you my version of our reality,
even if it doesn’t align with yours,
not even a little bit.

i want to inhale the same airs that fill your lungs,
even if your lungs are charred from all the smoke you let seep in.

i want to taste the cherry chapstick on your lips,
even if those same lips spew a distorted kind of tale.

i want to know the real you,
through and through,
no more masks,
even if the real you isn’t the you i think you are now.