The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One

by Amanda Lovelace

even the absolutely unthinkable happens here: children learn peacefully, unafraid of angry hands around guns.

& so she did what any rational woman would do— ever so calmly, she reached out & she tore the stars apart.

i tucked my story into the folds of silence in order to put other people at ease. - no more.

i painted my trauma in shades of crown gold & marigold pink to make it pretty enough to be enjoyed by others.

i’ve always fancied myself a mermaid of sorts. i must confess that i haven’t swam since long before i started punishing my body for all the things that were never its fault.

when you’ve walked on daggers your entire life, you don’t even know how to trust the softness of sand between your toes.

you are sad now. you are not sad forever.

this is for the ones with wild hair and ghosts in their lungs