And it's okay
if you flinch
every time he moves
his hands too fast

because in another time,
you were just
defending yourself,
and that is all right.

And it's okay
if you still skip class
every once
in awhile

because in another time,
that was the only time
you could catch a break,
and that is all right.

And it's okay
If you stay up all night-
making friends with
your bedroom walls

because in another time,
sleeping meant dreaming,
and all you really wanted
was reality,
and that is all right.

It will all be okay
in the end.

How do you say goodbye
To all the things you love
How do you leave
All of it behind
Do you whisper
The words
As quiet as you can
As soft as a breeze
How do you say goodbye
To everything you have
How do you turn away
And never look back
Do you walk
As slow as possible
Or do you run
So quick you're invisible
*how do you say goodbye

I've got a ghost in my head
His voice sounds the way your nails did
Sliding down my spine.
I've got a ghost in my head
And he keeps asking me why
I didn't let myself die.
I've got a ghost in my head
He keeps knocking on my door.
I've got a ghost in my head
Been there since the day your head
Hit the floor.

There's a little girl
Who keeps talking to me
She says I should let her in.
There's a little girl at my door
Wants to know what she did.
There's a little girl
Got a lot of questions
She wants to know why I stay hid.
There's a little girl
And shes perfect
No ones ever broken her rib.
There's a little girl
She's living in a time before
Your head ever broke
Against my bedroom floor.

I cried the entire way home because of you.
Because I had to leave a birthday party because of you.

You've taken a piece of me I'll never ever get back.
You've taken my life away or whatever it was actually.

Your face intrudes my mind and your sharp words pierce my ears over and over again.

It's been 12 years.
12 years.

How have I not forgotten by now?
It's been 12 years.

Because to me it's equivalent to my limbs missing.
You've taken pieces of me that I did not give you permission to take.

And no one stopped you.
It's been 12 years, and I cried the entire way home.

When I look at the photograph of you on your wedding day,
I can see all of us stretched out into the future.
As we lay your bones to rest under the earth you enriched,
Where your feet touched,
where you played as a child,
then Walked hand in hand with your soul mate.
Could you have imagined that photograph standing guard?
Proud and watchful over all of us yet to be born.
This family tree spreading it's branches.
New life now and the past yet to come.
Rest in peace you are not forgotten
by us to be.
Remembered in the feet that walk past your image today.
Did you ever imagine who lay ahead
in the smile on your wedding day?

She is lost
but she refuses to ask for directions
Because she has always been good at navigating
and she will refuse to acknowledge
that suddenly
she doesn't know
where she is anymore

So instead she wanders
around in circles
For days, weeks, months
And as the days blend into one
she finds that she doesn't even recognise
her surroundings anymore
and she can't even remember
how it felt before she was lost

Meanwhile her friends and family
don't notice she is missing
Too busy with their own lives
to realise she is no longer there

And now she's scared
That she has wandered too far
and too deep
That when she screams for help
Nobody will hear her

She folded me up like origami, turning something used into something beautiful
And smoothing out the creases of my geometric heart she kissed goodbye the girl she called art.

30

Adrift! A little boat adrift!
And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
Unto the nearest town?

So Sailors say—on yesterday—
Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
And gurgled down and down.

So angels say—on yesterday—
Just as the dawn was red
One little boat—o’erspent with gales—
Retrimmed its masts—redecked its sails—
And shot—exultant on!