I cannot breathe
But I don’t miss it
Breathing includes life and life includes living
Living ends in death and the prick of misery
It includes ends and beginnings and decisions I won’t make
No
That I can’t make
I cannot be
But I don’t care
I have walked this earth as a shell of a girl that I once knew
Who picked up petals to drop them from the tallest tower
Just to try and catch them when they fell
The shell of a girl who believed in the peace
or rather the peace of people
But was trampled by the elephant in the room
This girl could breathe
Would breathe if able
I’m supposed to breathe for her
To keep her memory alive as if she is the weight of a pebble in my pocket
But she isn’t a pebble, she is a boulder that weighs on my shoulders
She is the giant that came from the beanstalk
She is the beginning even if I wish she was the end
I can’t breathe
And I miss it
Anderson High School
12th