It Takes A Village

Not to raise a child,
but to keep one breathing
at a time she thought
she couldn't anymore.

Seventeen and slipping,
I walked toward endings
as if they were doors
left carelessly open.

But two complete strangers,
at two different hours
of the same unraveling life,
a mother, a minister,
a support group leader,
a counselor, a teacher,
two grandparents,
and one remarkable friend —
they all held space
for the parts of me
I believed unlovable.

It took a village
to keep me here,
to keep me whole enough
to keep trying.

A village of hands,
voices, strangers,
and love I didn't yet
know how to accept.

But I'm still here
because they were.