🥀✨⟡𝕯𝖆𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖊𝖉 ⟡✨🥀

Backyard under the big shade tree Little table set for one Biscuits and gravy still warm Bacon, fruit, and something sweet Coffee cooling in the cup Kittens move through the grass A hummingbird holds still Above the stargazer lily Everything looks soft Everything looks like nothing's wrong She sits at Alice's table Morning light on her hands Notices the lily Notices the quiet Then that small strange feeling Like a name she almost knows There's something I'm supposed to remember But the door stays closed There's an old wooden rocking horse Somewhere inside the house Paint worn down to the grain Waiting in the dark Back and forth Like something almost remembered Like a childhood always moving Never choosing where it's going My mind has storage rooms Shelves and covered things Boxes stacked in corners Doors with quiet locks Some I opened years ago Some I never touched Some were built to hold the things I couldn't name back then I'm damaged Not broken all the way through I'm damaged There were things I couldn't carry So I put them where I couldn't reach I'm damaged And I'm still here Some memories come clear Some are only pieces Some are just the shape of missing Bullshit a person's gotta dredge Just to find out what was done to them Just to find out what they did I built those rooms without knowing Locked what I couldn't hold Put the worst of it behind me Where nobody could go Now the keys are heavy And the halls are cold Every door has something behind it Every silence has a hold I open one more door A sound comes back A smell A face Then the kitten brushes my ankle Under the table And the morning is still the morning I'm damaged Not broken all the way through I'm damaged There were things I couldn't carry So I put them where I couldn't reach I'm damaged And I'm still here There are rooms I don't remember building Rooms with shelves all the way to the ceiling Boxes with no labels Pictures turned toward the wall Some memories knock softly Some come crashing through Some don't feel like memories at all Until they suddenly do And I wonder how a mind can know What a heart cannot explain How something can disappear for years And still leave behind its shape I don't know every answer I don't know every door I only know there's something in there That I wasn't ready to find Hummingbird Stargazer lily Kittens in the grass Coffee gone cold The tree still shading the table The beautiful things were real too And none of it makes the other less true So I don't have to open everything Not today Not all at once Some doors can stay closed Some memories can stay quiet Some rooms can wait I can sit beneath this tree And let the morning be what it is Biscuits and gravy Bacon and fruit Something sweet beside the coffee A kitten underneath the table A hummingbird above the flowers For once I don't have to search For every room that made this shape Some of it is painful Some of it is beautiful And both of those things are mine I'm damaged I don't have to open every door tonight I'm damaged I just know the rooms are mine And maybe that's enough For today The hummingbird returns to the lily One kitten curls beneath the table Breakfast mostly gone Coffee cold Somewhere inside the house The old wooden rocking horse Creaks once Then silence Damaged. ✦𓆩🥀𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝕺𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑🥀𓆪✦