By Kaleigh Washburn

Some days I feel like a child
With small limbs
And kind hands
Sometimes I am an ocean
That holds anger in the waves
Often I am twelve
And I am swimming
My bones are just beginning to ache
With the sheer weight of my existence
And I never learned how to grieve
So when I’m scared
I shrink down
Into something small enough to hold
A body weak enough to carry
And we grow so greedy in our wanting
That I don’t know who I am these days
But it’s December
So I’ll keep getting older
And when I’m tired
I’m twelve
And I just swam the length of the water
I’m coming home
From the beach
With sand stuck between the bends of me
I’m still small enough to carry
Things are just beginning to ache
And I don’t know why yet

–

Kaleigh Washburn is a poet from Indianapolis, Indiana.