One glance.
One word.
One rejection.
Sends you back.
To when you were five.
And the tears come
All over again.
The pain as fresh as
The day it first happened.
You realize
The shrapnel is still
There.
Cutting your heart.
Breaking off tiny little pieces.
But I am not broken.
I am human.
And these remnants of the past
Make me
Who I am.