Soul Suckers Poem by Erin Cowart

Beware the people who tell you that you are not enough
Not skinny enough
Not pretty enough
Not feminine enough
Never fast enough or smart enough

Your house is not big enough
Clean enough
Your voice is not loud enough
Your love is not enough

But what is enough?
To the soul that is lacking
Everything is never enough

Gaping holes begging to be filled
Because they lack enough soul to fill themselves
Emotional vampires
Sucking the life from all around them
And it will never be enough
They will take and take
And never be full


Stagnant souls
Terrified by those who move different from them
They will watch your dance
Try to copy it
And in failing
Label your moves
As less than

Watch close for those takers child
Those rabid soul-suckers
Take care to know your worth
Little people with no soul
Can never love the immensity of you

And in the moments when they sense their lack
They will hate you
They will hate you for being big
For being enough
For dancing through life
To music they can never hear
And a heartbeat
They can never tame

Their hatred will be sharp, perfect
And they will use it
To try to cut the heart from you
But you keep dancing
You keep loving
You keep moving
Because their hatred does not define you
It kills them

You will be tempted to turn back and look
Your healer heart will want to run to them
Your servant hands will want to lift them
From the pit of their own despair

In that moment
You will need to find the strength
To leave them there
In the pit where they choose to live
So that you can learn to fly