optimist?

(because i believe people can find courage to change)

someone recently said to me:
"that's optimistic of you"
that if i've seen the best of anyone
i hold to it
despite their past,
their struggles to overcome themselves
beyond the ways
fear
shackles people to past pain
despite people's inevitable
imperfection
or their fear of change itself
even when it's for their own good
in spite of the ways that living
and loving this way
has burned me

like a phoenix from ashes
maybe I emerge from the rubble
an optimist
maybe i believe
someone
believes i can live to get 80
be loved as intensely as I love
forgive myself for the ways I fail
to change
be as perfect as I strive to be
find others
as optimistic as me.