I use to fear you.
The way your hair reminded me of an oil spill, drowning me in poisons not fit for a queen.

Your eyes sat heavy and dark with despise.
What you were hating, I cannot say.

Maybe you could no longer stand yourself, you could no longer withstand.

I believed in the way you told me we’d survive.
That we would escape and run together.

Our lives with riches and sunlight.
I believed in all of you, all that you were.

I should have known,
To never believe in ghosts.

-Chloe Aldecoa