This is the ballad of broken pieces that fell in my palms. I’m still stitching them back together, because every time I raise my hands towards the sun, the wounds split back open. This happened because I broke my teeth by chewing sad words and the fragments made a mess of me.

And whenever people make eye contact, they can see right through my hollows and the emptiness echos in their minds forever and ever and ever and ever.

Do you ever wonder how it feels to wander without a struggle? I think things ate at my mind long ago- back when I was nothing but freckles and boney knees. Holding girlhood closer than the dandelions we rose to our lips the day we wished summer would last forever.

Pumped my lungs full of anticipation because nothing could lace me in more sadness than my thoughts. So I thought. We thought the world would go easy and it ripped right through our town and lit it on fire. Girlhood went up on flames and so did the echos of our laughter. Sometimes, I can still hear it, you know. Lulling in and out of a dream.

Bracing the sides of a bone white bath tub as the frothy mess baptizes me all over and over again. Help me be holy, I wonder how I can still believe in things I don’t see after, all this time.

And even though the pangs still stab at my shaking palms, I wish those pieces would fall from the sky and land in the pleats of my sundress. I’d let the sharp edges glisten around me. Watch it glow quietly still. And no one would bother making eye contact because they’d be blinded by the gracious light that glows on and on. -AMT©️