The trauma said, ‘Don’t write these poems. Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.

I know a thousand things louder than a soldier's gun; I know the heartbeat of his mother.

What Gods do you believe in? I'll build you a temple of mirrors so you can see them.

But when I thought I hit bottom, it started hitting back. There is no bruise like the bruise loneliness kicks into your spine.

Know you belong here. You belong here and everything you feel is okay.

I write because it is while I'm writing that I feel most connected to why we're here. I write because silence is a heavy weight to carry. I write to remember. I write to heal. I write to let the air in. I write as a practice of listening.

My heart is a parachute that has never opened in time.