inkskinned:

we lived with what came before us. smeared ourselves in what we didn’t carry but was passed down to us. i remember dragging one hand down my face in the car while we passed the rite aid, saying “i just want to kill myself” and you said “we all feel that way.” we pass it down and bury ourselves in it. i taught myself the language of how to be gentle, a language you never learned and didn’t like to speak. we both dance around the things we said to each other and can’t take back, the lines we drew but have to live with like wrinkles. i think i was really ready to love you no matter what, and that scares me. blood ties scare me. i’m sick of waking up thinking the best of you only to be reminded that you take that burden lightly.

we grow up. we grow up. despite the poison in the soil we find our way up.