Sale of mixed emotions

Sale of mixed emotions

I put my feelings up for sale,
On a table by the door,
Some were hardly ever used,
Some had been broken before.

There was happiness in a little box,
Still shining underneath,
Beside the pain I carried round,
That stole away my peace.

I had a jar of jealousy,
I priced it very cheap,
It caused me far too many tears,
And nights I couldn’t sleep.

There was anger in a battered tin,
With scratches down the side,
I thought that I had thrown it out,
But some of it survived.

I found some love behind the rest,
A little worn and torn,
It had survived a thousand storms,
Yet somehow carried on.

Regret was sitting quietly,
Nobody wanted that,
It held the things I should have said,
And things I can’t take back.

A stranger picked up loneliness,
And held it in their hand,
They looked at me with knowing eyes,
As though they understand.

“How much for all your memories?”
I couldn’t name a price,
For even ones that hurt me bad,
Had helped to shape my life.

So I packed away my little sale,
And carried it back home,
The happy, sad, the love, the hurt,
Were mine and mine alone.

For mixed emotions make us real,
They’re stitched beneath our skin,
And I won’t sell the life I’ve lived,
Or who I’ve grown within.