heart-wrenching, wretched heart

when the children sing the songs you teach, and smile the joy you feel, and chase after your departing vehicle,

when a family takes you in with open arms into their humble home, and offer you more than they can afford unconditionally,

when you dance in the mud and the rain around a campfire holding hands with students from another nation and sing their songs,

when you see children trooping to school in the rain uphill to attend your classes,

when they gather to look at you mixing cement and laying bricks for the first library ever in their village,

when you become part of a human chain with the locals to transport sand for flooring,

that is when your wretched heart is wrenched, wringed, and left to drip. and all prior mention of your heart's silence is silenced and left to roll despondently in the padi fields belonging to the family that cried when you left, that hugged you when you gave them a parting gift, that loved you so much more than you deserved.

with love, with love. with love -
i love