Lately I am tender

Lately I am tender

Lately everything

matters and hurts too much

and I feel young and tender

and jerk back from feeling

before it takes over

Lately I try to breathe 

against the hurt of the world

people are dying, wanting,

fighting, losing, losing,

and I know them all

Lately I count money

to a soundtrack of an empty room

an empty seat at someone's table

and this is all too ugly for a poem

and I hate it and I hate it

and I want it to be gone

Lately I am tender 

but some people can't afford to be

Lately I am tender

and look for gentleness in your face

and I can't always see

but your face too is tender

and it weeps for all these things

— olivia gwyn