You came in with the pain
I’d cracked open every window and wrist I had
trying to breathe the light back into my body
A naive attempt to expose my anguish to the cold
Freezing it right where I thought it belonged
as a foreclosure sign adorning my front yard
You came in with the snow
Mud creased against calloused teenaged boy hands
frostbitten nails staining clay down my stomach
Welted and rusted they end their exploration
resting on the tip tops of my thighs
you came in with the scent of spruce & foreboding
I have none of myself stitched up again
By the time you come in to break me open
Straining against these ties that bind
I’d always wanted to be loved
Showering me in pine needles
I wore the story of our little dance
like a priceless piece of art
That speaks on how
Nature meets beauty splashed
with the fragility of being a teenaged girl



- I  picked the pine needles out of my hair many years later
Lining them up like my little daydreams of what could have been