wildcat

a lesbian couple on my bus home from school

a man in a punk battle jacket on the street

my mother's female CEO group chat blowing up

four of my teachers taking the following day off

You can't skip over the third stair

if you're sneaking into the kitchen

because all the stairs creak,

just in different ways.

They don't talk about the light

in the closet

I gather hope in my pockets.

Shiny stones

smoothed by time.

I think of the bird

that flew free from her cage one day,

I watch you shine, so full of light,
While I am stuck here at night,
Once I had dreams, a path so clear,
But now I hide my pain and fear.

The wind sings-
she gathers stories, whispering tales of people lost long ago.

she tells them to me
but I forget as soon as she is gone.