Lauren W.

yesterday my brain took a road trip by itself to a place i have not yet been

my heart kept telling her to turn around
don't go there
stop before we go too far, she said

the windows were down and the music was volume 14 on the radio

the road signs said "dead end-
turn back, you've gone too far already"

so i put the car in park

i sat against a tree
and i looked up to the sky
i reached up towards the sky
the only word i could get out was "why?"



i looked down

a voice whispers to me
"everything will be okay"

i look to the right
then left
another girl sitting against a tree

her head pointed upward
looking at the sky

"everything will be okay"


you are not alone
you are not made up of the decisions you've made
or the disappointment you've caused

you are you and that is the best you can be
you are a masterpiece in an art museum made of bruises and scars
of broken pieces and broken bones
so don't you give up darling
you are on your way to the MET

ill see you there in the "broken but beautiful" section
(no photos please)


so turn the car around and head back home
don't forget your seatbelt
and text me when you've made it safe

you are the 5 minutes before a math test "put your study guides away", the pictures on the wall of the memories from that one perfect day, he is gone now.

the lion outside of its den, the thoughts of a 17 year olds depression
and you are terrifying

you looked my grandmother in the eyes one rainy afternoon in December and you took her
you took her cold hands and her warm heart and you put her body in the ground

I'm always told "you'll see them again"
but I've never seen a flower resurrect after the winter,
and i haven't been to my grandmothers grave

i don't know what will happen after, and I was never sure what happened before
so hold me close until its over
until death do us part

hold my hand, kiss me on the lips, set me free to where i belong
and when our winter comes,
and darling,

it will come,
remember

to live in the hearts we leave behind, is to never die