your heart and the sea

xiii. ribs

her body is a cage she's trapped in
her ribs hold lock-and-key
her heart needs to go flee run escape get away from this place
but something mortal in her keeps her still.
words seem to drip from her fingers like candle-wax
and she bleeds into the page
easy as if they cut into her with a butcher's knife.
but the second she tries to open her mouth
she makes a strangled sound
as if something is lodged in the back of her throat
something heavy and grotesque
because it's those goddamned ribs
letting her everything slide off her fingertips
so easy she doesn't even have to think
(it really does come from her heart)
but mashing it to a mushy paste in her brain
so it gets stuck in her throat like day-old glue
because maybe they don't need to hear her voice
maybe they just need to hear her thoughts
echoed as their own

***

originally posted in ribs, nd was where that sexy gal got her name from