10 Feet Away
The village I wanted isn't the one I have. She is ten feet away and also completely unreachable. Both things are true and neither one fixes the other. She is already jumping.
Bright
They gave me kind. And they kept the results. I'm not bitter. I'm clear. There's a difference. Bitter looks backward with resentment. Clear looks at what happened and calls it what it was.
Words Weaponized
Noticing isn't the same as being offended. We've collapsed those two things and it's made everything louder and less honest. You can't name a thing anymore without someone assuming you're wounded by it.
A Stranger in the House
He spread out photographs of my family and told me about his family while I looked at pictures of myself as a child. I'll be the stranger when I visit. I can live with that. I know where the coffee is.
Figure it out
I've been figuring it out on my own since before I was old enough to know that wasn't normal. I'm not angry. I'm something quieter than that, and more permanent.
Messages from Little Wren
We were never convenient. Convenient was never the point. The point was the apple. The point was the knock. Come back outside. The apples are ready.