I’m wandering in your shadow. I hate the sting from the sunlight, anyways. I’m watching to make sure you get home safe. Turn the latch and twist the knob, just to double check. I’m that harsh gust of wind against your window. I’m the creaking front porch. I’m the chipped paint on the stool from…

I’m falling over myself. Carrying is seamless when your back is built for that kind of thing. My spine aches. The curves that run through it ripple like a current. Begging to touch the shoreline. Falling short and washing back into the Dead Sea. How far can I sink? My knuckles scrape the bottom, I…

June has a way of making me long for a piece of me that left some time ago. Wherever she wandered to, I hope she’s safe. I hope she is drinking expensive bourbon and laughing until her lungs ache. I hope she found the definition of fearlessness and reads it back to herself everyday. I…

They filled the city pool up with concrete twelve summers ago. A boy drowned and no one could bear the sight of it. The empty crater sat there like a memorial until I watched the cement reach to the corners of the blue paint. Making a home in every crack- filling the crevasses where we…

I’m back like I never left. The cicadas scream in Midwest heat. Summer scrapping the surface of my skin, just enough to sting. The humidity wraps its arms around me- whispers, “welcome home, you’ve grown so much”. I’ve been longing for the familiarity that this place once gave me. Hoping to reach my hands back…

Some days I’m unwell. It boils in the bottom of my ribcage. The same place where nicotine collects. The taste resurfaces and it’s sour. Hold it behind my tongue like venom, except I swear it’s going to bite me back and kill me. I’m expanding my chest and trying to breathe through it. Sink my…

If you’re going to scream, make it loud. Let every piece of you echo through a hollow chest until your teeth shake. Do it until your voice goes mute and your throat is raw. Until your breath escapes you fully. Expel every whisper and take a seat in sun. Let it refill the dark parts.…

Sometimes betrayal looks like absence. When you leave make sure you look both ways before stepping out the doorway. What’s permanent? Is it just another Monday? I’m so used to the drag. My ribs creak like floorboards giving in from all the pressure. Take off your shoes before you run rampant through my soul. It…

I put a period at the end to finish it all. Finality feels different these days. It’s tangled and messy and unfair. You tell me these times are tough, but I’m tougher. Told me that I was born with strong knuckles and it would be a shame to not use them. Told me that if…

“Slow down, you’re racing yourself again”, my mother echos from across the room. She’s sitting with poise. Her dark hair meets her shoulders. She wears expensive jewelry and smells like flowers- except now her hands shake. Her eyes have a way of reaching into your soul and opening whatever you’ve been searching for. She is…