All the other things

Dear Mr Tin Man,

Oh how I feel your unfelt pain
and what it must be like to want to love once again.
To feel the embrace that a hug may bring
or the cleansing a few teardrops could spring.

To laugh and smile,
to show kindness even if for just a short while.
The simple things that remind us we're alive
the ability to prove that a heart once broken could survive.

Oh, Mr Tin Man,
so brave of you to want to care,
to be there
pleading to be present and living.
Forgiving,
and freeing
wanting to experience the perks of a human being.

But Mr Tin Man,
over time we've slowly lost touch
and the process was quite gradual.
Our emotions have become masked and
we're no longer fragile.
Just like you we also have become made of metal
living in a world lacking in mettle.

Desensitized,
even chastised
for showing the smallest acts of love.
Mr Tin Man
what in the hell has happened to us?
For you I hear it was a curse of the wicked witch
and well for us,
I think we may have dug our own ditch.

Because it's become cool to be cold,
a bunch of fools who don't fold,
wanting to be held but unwilling to hold,
externally put together yet
internally out of control.
And quite frankly to me it's all gotten old.

Like you Mr Tin Man,
I'm ready something that is real;
someone just for me.
A man that understands
that it's not what he's looking at that matters,
but about what he can see.

So much time has been spent
but no one is getting an investment on their return,
we've become stuck in old belief systems
we have yet to unlearn.

Oh Mr Tin Man,
is this what you really want?
Are you sure you can handle
the way the heart currently beats?
Because I'm telling you now
it's been hard in these yellow brick streets.

Don't get me wrong,
I understand your loss;
I relate to your side--
it takes a whole lot of courage to look in the mirror
and no longer want to hide.

There is a blessing--
a gift so to say,
a divine satisfaction that comes when we're able to
put our feelings on display.

Like I wonder if Dorothy, Scarecrow or even the Lion
fully understood your plight.
Could they possible fathom what it must be like
to have someone dim out their light?

I apologize,
excuse me for going off on a tangent
I didn't mean to digress,
let me sum up this letter by what I came here to
address..

You dear Tin Man have inspired me
well beyond measure,
and that empty chest of yours
ironically holds the worlds greatest treasure.

It's not a trunk full of rings--
crowns for kings,
not a bird who sings
or even an angel with wings..
No, I have found in you the ability
to be grateful for all the other things.

You're the collateral beauty
to my collateral damage,
you unknowingly slid me some oil--
lubricated my mind
so now I can manage.

There aren't enough words to
express my sincere gratitude,
so I'll simply say thank you
for being my Wiz
minus all of the attitude.