i don’t think i had ever truly felt it the burning sensation dripping down your fingers the melted chocolate running along the corners of the graham cracker as if i just had to know if it was ready or at least know if it was hot it was strange i woke up one day not having to question how i was feeling if my skin had outgrown my bones or my brain had outgrown this…
when grieving is something you’ve finally been given permission to do you take a breath because you haven’t taken one in years because you haven’t been allowed to it tastes smokey the bitter bits left in the fire after it’s all burnt out your light is gone is has been for years now you still search for it in the darkness between the flickers of light the moon lets in as the west wind howls…
Add block for days they tell you ‘it’s not all priests’ tell them ‘it’s not all men either’ but that doesnt stop the fear from crawling up my sisters’ throats’ tell them ‘they look for other women when they walk into a room like liferafts just hoping they’ll take them to shore’ tell them. ‘everytime we get into a boat we are expecting it to sink’ tell them. ‘we stopped chasing our dreams a long…
the day the earth broke open our braids untangled our bodies shut down ‘cut down’ the trees they said we’ll sell all the lumber we were not afforded the luxury of crumbling we rebraided our hair pinned it down tight this time they could no longer undo it ‘cut down’ their power put them into bite-size pieces we can sell their parts the day the earth broke open we put away our comfort foods and…