Uncropped

When recovering alcoholics ask if
they will ever be able - or allowed -
to have a relationship again,
they are told, "Go buy a plant.
If the plant survives for six weeks,
adopt an animal. If the pet survives
for three years, then you can
think about a relationship."

In deeply ingrained complacency,
without much analysis,
the point of this is evident.
It hits one somewhat
like a sledgehammer.

But a little wisp of doubt
creeps in, begs a question:
What about people
who have never had a problem
with addiction?

So what does it take, then,
to look at a picture,
uncropped?
To see the other with their flaws
their meltdowns
their full-blown hopes and passions
their deep cracks and crevices
their raging insanities and desperate beauty?

What does it take
to accept the insanity with the beauty
to find space for the flaws and cracks and crevices
to make space for their hopes and passions
to bear up under the pressure of their
Meltdowns?

What does it take
to pull off blinkers that circumscribe
the bits of the picture
that would rather be cropped
that if included render
it a picture imperfect?

What does it take
to take the goddess off the pedestal
and to hold her as human as she is
to unfocus from the perfection
and see the uncropped for the
perfection it is?

What does it take
to make a relationship
Real?