Changing Bones

A coming-of-age story of a young girl as she grows, breaks, and heals through a series of short stories, poems, and poetic puzzles.

Do you see me?
Do you even see me?
Do you see anything besides this body that is too fat, too plain, too clumsy, too delicate for you?
too....
not enough.
Do you....
Even see me?
Do you see anything deeper than this scarred skin?
Do you see the pain in my eyes and the anger in my soul?
Do you see what I am made of?
Do you care?
Do you?
(Excerpt from Changing Bones pg. 22)

He laughs, a mist that burns at the edges of my heart. That was sarcasm, seeing as nobody else has arrived. Do you not do sarcasm?

I stare at him with eyes that haven't dared to look another person in the face for a month now. He has sandy blonde hair that pairs pleasantly with my own ocean eyes, creating a beach that had yet to be touched. The amber in his eyes preserves a sunset on our makeshift beach that welcomes me for a refreshing swim. The freckles on his skin beg me to collect them like seashells into a bucket and carry them home with me to display proudly on a shelf in my room. The red in his lips becomes a coaxing campfire that warms the chill from the air, his words becoming sparks that take off into the air like lightning bugs.

Is that a no?

I suddenly remember that I am afraid of the beach.

He chuckles as the ocean in my eyes expands until I am left adrift in the middle of them. My name is-

I don't need to know your name, thank you. My voice recoils into itself and then quickly turns back to the mystery of the engraved initials in front of me. The smallest waves in his voice had made me nauseous. My mother's voice rose among them, "Don't rock the boat, sweetie, just go with the flow."

It's hard to rock the boat when you are drowning in its wake.
(Excerpt from Changing Bones pg. 36)

TW: Includes themes of suicide, rape, emotional abuse, and panic attacks.