The source

I am more broken 

Than I may seem, dear,

If I have done well

With my disguise.

If I have softness: 

Hardness cored-empty.

When I have patience: 

Fatigue looking kind.

If I have strength, now: 

Earth dense and tamped-down.

If I have goodness:

Well then, there's a thing...

Here in my memories 

Dance all these lifetimes, 

Fall all these laughs and 

Burst all these tears.

My mind's a graveyard

– Shrines and memorials –

Heart's haunted forest, 

I fear to tread.

I feel the ages 

Cold in my bone-deep,

Warmth in my veins from

Fires long dead.

I am no "good" man, 

I am just traveler,

I'm but a sailor 

Out on this sea,

Guiding a raft made

Out of spare wreckage,

Bound up together

With sinew of me.

Yet who but the migrants

Care more for others

Finding themselves in

Similar fates?