and this is how it ends

SHEYLA MEDINA

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I see you shivering

Hands clasped and facing upward

As if praying for thunder to enlighten

The death out of you

 

Don’t move

 

You are, in soft whispers,

Recounting all the turns that you made

All the falls that you took

All the joys that you felt

All the hopes that you planted

 

I see you looking for answers in frozen eyes

Believing that you sing innocence

You hold your breath

Not for fear of letting go

For longing that the next will be hollow

Within your unbroken chest

 

Don’t move

 

You hear nothingness

But your own heartbeat

Pacing against their clocks

The gut instinct to erase you

Believing that you are danger incarnate

 

I see you anointed with your truth

That you are meant to breathe here

That you are just becoming

That you are loved

 

Before you are stunned into silence

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