The Shallows

by Holly Craig

But just like any perfect person who you admire from afar, you can’t invite them into your own house, otherwise they’ll notice the imperfections and the fragilities of your own life.

They never see the woman crying in the shower, the drinking to get drunk, the bingeing after starving, the relentless running to burn off the pent-up anger.

She’ll see me laughing, her mother smiling and that’s all kids ever want to see.

There is no one before now. I am now and I am all that exists in him. And a love like that just ruins a person as insecure as me.

You can’t go back to sleep but life just seems too hard to stay awake.

He pulls me into him and I’m home.