vulnerable people

Photo by Mathias Reding

so you’ve gotten what you wished for…
that can be a very dangerous thing
but you don’t waver — you’re steadfast
that’s what’s attractive about you…
you’re not a great person,
you’re a good person…
so, I was wandering around for years,
looking for the right thing
but surviving is basically boring
they say it’s human instinct
to be familiar with your environment
and observe your surroundings
so why am I so oblivious sometimes?
vulnerable people notice
other vulnerable people
it’s the weakness in me
that senses the weakness in you
I can somehow see
where people are growing thin,
how they tend to wear out at the seams
yet it’s always the strong
that make all the friends,
all the fruitful connections
and that’s why they want
to make all the fucking decisions
broken folks are done deciding
it’s all they can do sometimes,
just to float along…
but, you see, choice is about attitude
as much as anything…
even a tree has a choice
it can face the sun
or it can make its own shadows

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Garbage Notes:

This poem is about recognizing your own weaknesses in other people.

It could be a bad habit or a mental illness or even just a personality preference that tends to make you a bit vulnerable in certain situations. There’s this human capacity that we have, to see bits of ourselves in others.

It’s part of what connects us. It’s how we can relate and reach out to those who need us.

It’s odd sometimes, but I only have to read a line or two of someone’s writing, and I immediately recognize some aspect of myself in that person.

Often your favorite books are the ones that feel like you could have written them. Like the voice in your own head is being translated onto the page. That unification of the dark side of consciousness is what this poem is all about.

Life can be difficult, and there’s a certain kind of person who will take advantage of a sniffed-out weakness. Some people smell blood in the water, and they go for it. They pounce. But nothing good or personally fulfilling will come from this.

If we want to truly embrace one another, we have to use this extra sensory skill that we have—this ability for identifying weakness—and use it not to our own advantage, but to help others. This is what will add to the collective strength of the world.

That’s where the choice comes in. So much of life has to do with what we decide to do when we confront the need for mercy in another person’s eyes.

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Franco Amati 2026

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