it's like the words
are heavy scissors
their weight
hanging
dragging across the floor
i hold them up
and with shaking hands
to do
to say
what i know i can't hold off any longer
can't hold on
can't be held down
i snip at the ties
that hold my us together
the strings already so thin from
years of impatience
and guarded words,
tiptoeing around unspoken thoughts.
snip
until they
fall
away
and
every last one
is
gone

i stretch my tired arms.

do i try to piece together
the tattered remnants of something
that was once beautiful?
or
walk away from ribbons that had suffocated me
wound themselves tightly around my limbs
and left me gasping for air?
kept me from moving,
from learning,
from growing,
for as long as i can remember.

they leave behind
only open wounds
that will someday scab over
and leave invisible scars,
only existing
in the
innermost
linings of my heart.