So Much, We Give

We give so much of ourselves.
We give to those we love,
and we beg for them to give us back.
We lose parts of ourselves along the way,
so caught up in our giving and taking
we never notice the trades that occur,
and then we give what we have taken
to the third or fourth or fifth
down the line. For we are selfish,
in what we give and what we get -
sometimes it's more we give,
and sometimes it's more we take,
but we never give more than we choose to.
Of course, the utter gift,
the oblivion and loss of self,
is when we give our all, but even
then it is our choice, not curse,
and when eventually we have none left to give
it is ourselves to blame.
We give so much, to friends and foes,
to loves and fairy tales,
but what we give we can earn back,
with interest, if we choose.