I thought of the end and / I met it for what it was.
mental health
preservation
inches from the nowhere drain
the rut
descend and dissolve
on why I can’t help myself
because I don't / know how to know / it any other way
times I felt I wasn’t enough.
Let’s stop making other peoples bodies our business.
anxiety as a chair
the thought of it being anything other than a chair scares you.
the year our children grew in isolation.
He's this whole entire other person and it's happened in secret.
why taking care of yourself is not admitting defeat.
Put on your own oxygen mask first. Always.
what’s too hard to say out loud
Sometimes it all feels like swallowing glass; you reach for a solution but it's like trying to catch smoke in your hand.
sometimes our children are the stabilizers.
The key chain from the aquarium sat at the other end of the kitchen table. I watched the blue-dyed water and the turtle inside shake, each time he sunk into his chair and wriggled, refusing to read an assignment.
