CW: brief mentions or and allusions to nonspecific trauma

and a caveat:

my poem isn’t written for anyone specific - take what you will from it

or in other words

I treat the mirror like a grudge

the way I hold it against them

start my time

July 17

Unspool me babe My words are a thread if you pull I'll come undone straight to my core there's always more to say if you care I'm so tired of the things we don't say I want to pull your thread babe I want to see you come undone not to destroy but to know it means you felt safe

to watch the stitches unravel under your fingertips

and resist the urge to grab at it

thread popping free of the fabric snagging on every trauma and heartbreak every word has a story behind it

(you can tell a lot about someone by the way they disagree with you.) (the real stories are performed off-stage.) (sometimes, Nothing is the best response.) (I wonder who can piece that together.)

Just ask - unless you fear the answer.

If you know I’m holding myself back

and I know you feel safer when I keep myself in chains

that’s not peace, that’s mistrust

and never forget who benefits

when we let ourselves be divided