altarlanguage | neglectfulness | tactbody | a poem in recovery

I abandoned a house

where my childhood was still ongoing

*

I sat on a wall

and pretended that death didn’t step into my home

*

I looked out of a plane

and heard your song above the clouds

*

I knew that I

with your weight on my body

could only use words to get away

*

I studied the effortlessness of violence

in children around me

and never set foot in their houses

because I tried to escape my own

*

you’ve pushed my survival instinct

to such a degree that

my anger made me step out of my body

and fill a room

without my soul

“Ida Reading a Letter” by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916)

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