Say Anything (trigger warning: abusive relationship)
This poem is about an abusive relationship I had with an older guy when I was a teenager. Looking back, I am trying to make sense of why I was with someone whom I found spiritually (and to be honest, physically) repulsive. Someone I did not feel safe with. I had healthier options (and being alone would have been the healthiest option of all) but, as I wrote in my notebook a few years ago, "the trauma wants what it wants."
I wrote Say Anything in the summer of 2025 and I wasn't sure that I was ever going to share it. It felt too vulnerable to send out on submission — I wanted to protect it from the cruelty of slush piles.
I am blessed to say that I was able to safely leave this abusive situation before it escalated. But I do wish that the people in my life back then had said something. Anything.