#1

People say wounds take time to heal.

It’s easy to think they’re gone

Since it’s hard to see their effect sometimes,

But no matter what you do to dress the wounds,

You need time to mend.

I’ve started to recognize that also applies to life.

We are told we can just fix our problems

And we want to believe that.

There is control in this way of thinking.

Versus recognizing that despite what can be said and done,

Wounds still take time to heal.

But since time is now a commodity,

We worry we won’t have enough to fix what is broken

So we don’t.

We don’t stop.

We keep moving,

Keep injuring ourselves

Until we are falling apart before our very eyes.

We give ourselves enough respite

To put bandages on what needs stitches.

Then, we continue.

With our head held high

We live,

Racing forwards to the future.

And we wonder why

Blood continues to trail behind us

Wherever we go.

#2

Sometimes losing yourself really means letting go

Of who you used to be.

You are not lost.

You are simply stumbling upon a version of you

You could only see in dreams

And more than anything you are mourning—

Mourning the girl you used to know.

For better or worse,

She’s never coming back.

Let yourself grieve the innocence lost

And celebrate the wisdom found.

It is time to become the you that is now.

#3

Sometimes I wonder if I’m running away...

That once I’m gone

I’ll realize

A piece of me missed

What left me broken.

But I think that is just the doubt,

The part of myself I manipulated

Into seeing myself as only flaws

#4

I’m sad to leave it all behind.

Not because it was a life worth living

But because I grew comfortable.

Part of me still fears I won’t make it on my own.

What if when push comes to shove

I’m not enough for the life I dreamed of?

Insecurities are fun like that.

They like keeping you trapped in your cycle

But I’m good at surviving the highs and lows that I know

Add in unknowns

And maybe I can’t make it anymore,

Maybe I’m not as durable as I like to believe

I concede

I’m scared of pain

I’m afraid that it will lead to the same.

So, which is it?

Do I relish in my rollercoaster of ups and downs?

Or do I fear being stuck on the same ride my entire life?

#5

Every second

Every minute

I am trapped in it

Time

The thing that needs me

The thing that leaves me

You always sound so far away

I live in dreams until the day

Then you go

To be forgotten

Time likes to forget

But never gets lost

I cross my fingers

Praying there won’t be a cost

To wasted days

Words I never say

I don’t live with regrets

But the shame they never left

#6 A Woman’s Bones are of the Earth

A woman’s bones are of the earth.

Formed from the forgotten

Lived stories decomposed

Fertilizing a much larger narrative

—a wound.

And our hearts will forever beat in time

With the blood that pours out of it,

It is why we have always been known as healers.

If we did not learn how to tend wounds

We would never have been able to survive

The world we were born into.

But survive we do,

Often even thrive.

Despite the open wound that lives with us

Day to day,

We prosper through the pain.

#7

Empathy lies patiently in the quiet.

It will not push through crowds

Nor demand attention.

It needs the form of a soft caress

From a vulnerable soul

To be accepted into the light of day,

But once accepted

It will plant seeds of hope

Produce plentiful harvests of love and trust,

Even when it wilts,

It only falls to the ground to rebuild.

And maybe empathy doesn’t reach light often,

But once it feels its first glimmer of sun

It can never go back.