A List of Cages

SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS going to happen.
I usually wake up with that feeling at the bottom of my chest

Nothing means anything! People just go. They don’t finish.

I don’t know at all the pain of trying to know and understand someone after they’ve gone.

And when you smile…my grandmother calls them big-soul smiles. She says some people have souls so big that they spread out, touching everyone they pass.

It’s like you come into a room and you’re glowing or something.

seems like there should be an obvious wound branded across your forehead when you feel like this.

That feeling follows me all day, and I imagine I can see it the way you can see the golden glow that surrounds angels in paintings.

It seems unfair, the way unhappiness flows out of a person, just to ricochet.

I’ve cried in pain and I’ve cried in fear, but these tears are different, deeper, like I’m breaking apart.

Maybe I could answer if time were measured in exhales, because I’ve counted all my breaths.