safety

A summarised guide to distinguishing

safety from harm. First, ignore all the waymarks

—some will be promises,

some will be lures—and you can’t spend

your earned peace presiding. All angles coming at 

you with a definition of safety 

is dizzying. Claustrophobic. It’s okay

to stand back.

Second. There’s an expression that you

should never let dissolve you.

This is a safe space, isn’t ever a truth,

but a phrase. People with any intentions

can say words. You ought to know: 

moral misalignment doesn’t affect 

the sincerity of pronunciation. It’s okay

to stand back

and evaluate instinctually. The third principle

is paramount. When you’ve been hurt ad nauseam

by incarnations of the word safety, it's okay 

to stand back. All you are at your core

is a beating, trying, human heart. You’re not expected

to know what safety is, just that:

the only thing that safety will never be

is a question.

Lead with that.

© Mollie Mardel