Dear [Adeline]

You're mistaken.
You keep thinking that I'm broken.

You write about those nights last January

those nights listening to those voice recordings.

You write about when he came home early.

& when you came too late.

You write about the forecast for the rest of her life

& that evening when you swear I was shattered

           & glistening on the floor of this rib cage.

but you're wrong.

You were wrong when you thought pieces of me were slipping

slipping through your tear ducts & into your shaking fingers.

You were wrong when you realized that rocking back & forth

back & forth

was helping.

When really you were giving me a headache

& when I get a headache,

you feel the heartache

& and we're both spiraling through time and heartbreak and

you were wrong.

And I know you'll never believe me

because you'll never see me

& you'll never see,

you'll never see that 

i am whole.

So go on thinking.

Go on feeling.

& go on writing as if I'm

broken

but you'll know,

you'll know that

You

Are

Almost

Always

Wrong.

still here,

still whole,

Your Heart.