I suppose we wear our traumas the way the guillotine wears gravity; our lovers' necks are so soft. - Andrea Gibson

Before I die, I want to be somebody’s favorite hiding place, the place they can put everything they know they need to survive, every secret, every solitude, every nervous prayer, and be absolutely certain I will keep it safe. I will keep it safe.

Some days my heart beats so fast
my ribcage sounds like a fucking railroad track
and my breath is a train I just can't catch.

The trauma said, ‘Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.