My Heart Is Not A Vacation Place

You treat humans like islands,
hopping from one to the next.
Staying only until you feel
that the honeymoon phase is over
and you’ve soaked in every last drop of sunlight,
and at the first crack of thunder,
you prepare your ship for an early departure
to the next place.

You live in an island state
forgetting that there are other cities to visit inland,
just as beautiful as the island that invites tourists in
but you are so focused on the sun that you never see
the spot to safely anchor your ship and explore the rest.

But I am not an island you can easily escape from
I am not a vacation you will find yourself
quickly exiting.
If you think that you can walk onto this island,
without a rescue plan,
because you have been saved by god so many times before
then you have arrived with too high of expectations.

When lightning strikes
and the winds become unbearably strong,
you will not be able to set sail because the
tropical storm will follow immediately after
and you will be lost at sea.

This island will always haunt you
because once you tear yourself apart from it,
beaten, bruised, burnt, but alive,
you will realize that there are no other islands quite
as welcoming as this one.
You will find yourself attempting to dock your ship
again and again and again at the harbor,
only to find that there is no longer space left on the bank.

And when you spend the rest of your days,
searching other islands,
attempting to find the same fascination
in overcrowded, showy, tourist-ridden places,
you will find that I was not a vacation.
I am a destination.