Hurting the Ones You Loved

this is what I know.

that hurting those you love is like missing that bottom step on a staircase,

like riding shotgun on the rollercoaster

lungs filled with sand, weighed down by the eternal promises of stones we could never keep
but whose shadows forever leave scars only our broken hearts
can fınd the vein paths towards.

like a handful of chilis being plunged into the recesses of your rib cage

and swallowed up whole before sprouting wings and learning how to fly,

flying higher than that kite your father never bought you because of the way you said

you’d rather create worlds than live within them.

you could’ve sworn you knew how the caged bird sang

as your bones folded inward around that sacred heat.