Closest Iteration

You are the version of me that finally figured out how to guard her heart. Good for you. Truly. You’ll last longer than I did, though probably with half the stories. I admire your discipline almost as much as I pity your boredom. Love will glance your way and you’ll stare back with suspicion, clutching your armor like it’s salvation. You will call it wisdom, and maybe it is, but wisdom is such a poor substitute for wonder. Perhaps you’ll never be shattered the way I was, but you’ll never be undone by beauty either. And that, I think, is the crueler fate. To live safely, untouched, while the rest of us bleed in technicolor.

—SYL