I'm Floating Inside My Skin. I Could

The Wind Picks Up. It Sends Leaves Scurrying For Cover Until A Softer Breeze Blows Through, Settling Them Down Again As If To Say, Shhh, There, There, It's All Right. One Leaf Still Dances In The Air. It Spins Higher And Higher, Defying Gravity And Logic, Stretching For Something Just Out Of Reach. It Shall Have To Fall, Of Course. Eventually. But For Now, I Hold My Breath, Willing It To Keep Going, Taking Comfort In Its Struggle.

If There Was One Truth Evie Had Learned In Her Short Life, It Was That Forgiveness Was Easier To Seek Than Permission. She Didn’t Plan To Ask For Either One.

People Have A Habit Of Inventing Fictions They Will Believe Wholeheartedly In Order To Ignore The Truth They Cannot Accept.

Did They Find Something Wanting In You, Gemma, At The Party? You Didn’t Speak Too Freely Or Behave…strangely?” I Grew Claws And Bayed At The Moon. I Confessed That I Eat The Hearts Of Small Children. I Told Them I Like The French.

Come Awake, Tom. Fathers Can Willfully Hurt Their Children. They Can Be Addicts Too Weak To Give Up Their Vices, No Matter The Pain It Causes. Mothers Can Turn You Invisible With Neglect. They Can Erase You With A Denial, A Refusal To See. Friends Can Deceive You. People Lie. It Is A Cold, Hard World. I Do Not Blame Nell Hawkins For Retreating From It Into A Madness Of Her Own Choosing.