Between Bruises and Blooms

I stopped asking,

“Who will love me?”

“When will things change?”

“Will I finally be enough?”

Instead,

I asked,

“What part of me
have I buried
to make other people
comfortable?”

The cards
grew quieter.

Kinder.

They stopped feeling
like fortune tellers

and started feeling
like old friends

who had been waiting
for me
to ask
the right question.