Written by Beth Davison
I will stay awake until the faces in the walls start screaming,
until the paint bleeds into fractured memories of fragmented cries.
I will stay awake for an eternity and
I swear
I can no longer walk.
I will stay awake and the lochs will dry and my tears will fall in torrents of scathing amulets
of crystalline death.
I will stay awake and you will walk straight by.
I will stay awake and you will ask how I have been and I will smile
God
I can't breathe. I will stay awake because I can't account for the last five years of living.
I will stay awake because you have stolen my days. But the nights? The nights
I will keep
for myself.
Photo taken by Beth Davison