I push you.
You charge at me,
your once intimate smile
contorts with hatred,
and fear
carves itself into my gut
until all that is left
is a puss yellow
that swallows me inside out.
So I shove you,
and my anger bursts through the surface
like a budding cyst.
Desperation tastes bitter on the tongue
and propels me
to your looming figure.
My hands
claw at you,
and one thought echoes
again and again –
“If I don’t,
He will.”
If I don’t,
He will
If I don’t,
He will
If I don’t,
He will
But you latch onto me
and I descend into
the cold pit –
You dug our grave, and I
yank us into it.
Vicky Post is an English education major who spends most of her days writing, singing, and painting. She is an advocate of jazz, musical theatre, and writing education, as a means to help students with self-expression. This past summer, she attended the Philadelphia Urban Seminar, where she got to assist in teaching and help strengthen the narratives of seventh and eighth graders.