#skin 1

[mortalpractice]

because honestly I’ve been thinking of holding your hand as I am tired of holding my breath or tongue I will task each rib into a rung leaving ladders that lead to the top of each lung so you can witness where all of my words for you hung at the gallows of my own cowardice. ---Shane Koyczan, from “Skin 1,” Visiting Hours

[lopesided]

Abuela

She wears skin too heavy for her tilting bones. A mother, turned grand, turned great. Years have left her since last complete, a year old survivor on the dawn of winter’s solstice.