Imperfectly imperfect

I wish it had been simpler
Good or bad
Love or hate
This or that

In all these years
Nobody really taught me
How to live
In the world of and

The greatest gift you gave me
Was LIFE
A doorway for me
To enter this physical world

You kept me alive
While I learned to eat, walk, and talk
You taught me how to read and write
Joy of reading books and flying imagination

You taught me the fun of life
With presents on special occasions
Family trips and outings
By letting me play with my friends

You encouraged me
When I worked on my creative projects
You course-corrected me
When I did something unthoughtful to my friend

Because you gave me all the great gifts
I found it even harder
To understand
How the other pieces fit into the picture

When you hit me
When you locked me out of the house
When you said something mean to me
But I had to be the one to apologize

Those teenage nights at home
I slept to the yelling and banging
I was hurt, but when I kept quiet
I was praised for my patience

You had the gut to call me a failure
That I was incapable
That I was mad
That I was a hopeless dreamer

Why did you have to be so imperfectly imperfect?
Not perfect to be without terrible pieces
But not perfectly imperfect
To be without the great pieces

Faced with
Imperfect imperfection
I’m not in a place
To make any judgement

Because
Judgement is only valid
On a perfect ground
Which I know doesn’t exist

But I can choose
What to value, what to focus on
And what to love
In this puzzle called LIFE

That is enough