in january he was gentle.
rested a soft hand on my neck -
it felt strange
but he said it was natural
and so i believed him.

and now in june it's a chokehold
a strange escalation that took months to notice
my body slowly being deprived of oxygen
turning blue
and lifeless
his strong fingers
leaving bruises on my pale skin
veins stand out
as i
scream on the couch
my back arched
like electrodes placed on my temples
shocking me back to life
i feel that strange,
wild,
raring,
open pain
course through me
for the first time in a year

these aren't things
he understands
all he feels
is how cold my lips have become
uttering words
i've swallowed
for years

and he'll reassure me until i want to scream,
vocal chords shredding
temples pounding
i don't care if you'll always be there for me
i don't care if you'll never leave me
i don't care
about what you have to say anymore
your words chafe my mouth
like sawdust
dry, tasteless, choking
i can't breathe
your hand on my neck
because you love me
getting tighter
the more i pull away
i wish you knew
what all of this
feels
like

back to blank eyes
slouched shoulders
ringing in my ears
numbness in my limbs
my frankenstinian moment of animation over
pushed down once more
dead on that cold slab of table
sedated, uncaring
dull ache in my womb

i know why the caged bird sings
back arched
clenched teeth
clawed hands in hair,
screaming
inhumane moans
and howls
ripping from her throat

wires like fists
squeeze
lovingly
too close
to breathe

i know why she sings
i know why she cries
i see that trembling horror, too

blank eyes
strange convulsions
tear through me
quiet screams on my breath
i can't control them
i've controlled it for so long
i stopped even noticing

why is it open now
why do i see the too familiar spots on my eyelids
taste the fear my mother drank at night
on the couch in my childhood home
so tangible
the fruit flies fell from the cloying summer air?

it wasn't that bad i tell myself
holding the back of my neck, the sides of my head
it wasn't that bad
= why does my fist
clench so? =
it's okay it's okay
it was so long ago now
years, even
and it wasn't even as bad
as i must make it sound
why does my body
scream so
and without
my permission
so suddenly
why
tonight
do i finally
sing?

the thing is i don't need you
that's the problem
you need me so, so much
you don't know what you'd do or be without me anymore
even just after a week

but me?
i know what i'd do without you
i'd be fine without you
i'd do what i've always done
your absence does not frighten me at all.
the fact that mine does...
must be unfair
but i do not know how to tell you

does it mean i don't love you?
or does it simply mean
i understand how to survive
heartbreak

i say i don't much like running
always been a bit fat for it to be honest
but threaten me with something beautiful
and i will run faster than i ever thought possible
in the opposite direction.

the worst part about good things is that there must be bad things to create a contrast
or there would be no good to dream about
and it is the good that i am most frightened of
i do not know how to conduct myself
after these last few years.

i know i can handle the bad.
i'll cut my arms and smash my head against walls
and cry at ceilings with the lights off, quietly
but i will survive in the end
not for me, but for the people who it would hurt too much to endure.

the good -
the inexplicable, weightless happiness
is something i cannot understand
something i cannot fathom
the unknown, the unknowable -
the most frightening thing i can think of
and it is what i run away from
treating a funny, beautiful boy who only wants me to be happy
with silence
and fear
and suspicion
becoming what i hate
despite anything i attempt otherwise

i am so fearful,
that i make myself ugly.

the way he says "i love you" makes me weak
his gravelly, city-boy accent trickling through a phone i've dropped more times than i can count.

it survived two heartbreaks and lived just long enough to have the most beautiful words
the most beautiful voice
pour out of it
whiting out the ugly sentences that i allowed it to harbor
for years.

chipped and scratched and kind of slow but now full of some of the most wonderful memories i will ever experience
despite it being given by a boy who ***** so much more than my body
in this boy it is redeemed - i am redeemed.

is something good going to happen now?

so simple, so delicate, so quiet a thought
it makes me cry, because i never thought it would.