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# What One Gives Up
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/what-one-gives-up/
- Published: 2016-08-16T01:24:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T05:03:13.000Z
- Description: My heart has grown docile, less inclined to thrash about, to strain at the leash. Maybe that’s the way it goes: We come into the world like lava, we burn and blaze and flow, and then cool into something solid
- Author: Andy
- Tags: America on the Brink, poetry, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

My heart has grown docile, less inclined  
to thrash about and strain at the leash.  
Maybe that’s the way it goes: we come  
into the world like lava, we burn and blaze  
and flow, then cool into something solid—  
an identity? No, I don’t believe that,  
my friend. Too many adults tried to sell me  
a story about who I would become, and how.  
But life is hard, a shadow passing through  
the briefest light, a pulsing in the body  
we’d have to destroy to touch. To grow  
into myself, I've had to refuse to exchange  
purpose for joy—what kind of goal is felicity  
amidst such suffering? And yet, here you are,  
my love: a presence, a mind, a body I hold  
close and still without need to sacrifice a thing.