Featuring work by: McKenzie Richardson
Life After This | McKenzie Richardson
Remember how we used to try to reach the stars that lined the ceiling,
and you never could quite touch them?
I promise there’s life after this.
Remember when you felt so scared or sad or angry
that you hid in the closet, rolled up like a ball?
I promise there’s life after this.
Remember when I was the only one who understood you
and that is what finally drove us apart?
I promise there’s life after this.
We used to make up new last names.
We put fresh new spins on the same old games.
We always found the different
when we tried to find the same.
But we made it to the castle at the end
every time.
I promise there’s life after this.
I know it gets hard with the yelling and fighting;
living in a house full of thunder and lightning,
it’s a death-grip hug that is forever tightening,
but there has to be life after this.
Under the hurt and the pain and the fear
there is love buried deep.
I promise there’s life after this.
I just wish that was a promise
I knew I could keep.
I hope there’s life after this.
* * *
McKenzie Richardson lives in Milwaukee, WI. Her short stories have been published in the anthologies, Mutate, Electromagnetism, and It’s Behind You. Her work has also been featured in Flash Fiction Magazine, Whispers and Echoes, Winter Wishes, and Love Letters to Gaia.
Follow her on Facebook for more updates on her writing: https://www.facebook.com/mckenzielrichardson/
She also runs a crafting website at www.craft-cycle.com
Previous chapter: Chapter 27: Circle | Next chapter: Chapter 29: Moonstruck, Ragtag & Wanderlust
~ Outcast and Other Words ~ 