Timber Bridge.

By Neeharika

Though I have been scared for myself quite a few times before, I have never been afraid of myself until now / she breaks down in front of me and all I do is rub her back / not because I don't care but the lack of words in the moment weighed me down and shook me to my core / my eyes brimmed with tears and they told me to let it out / “I can't” / not because I don't want to but I haven't been able to for a while and that's eating me up / I swallow and keep my thoughts bottled up to avoid conflicts / I say, "Yeah, you're right" just so the conversation doesn't go south / my mind is in a constant whirlwind and if I don't put an end to it, I might get lost / I know overworking will get me nowhere but this guilt gnaws at me / "You never try hard enough" / will I ever learn how to deal with someone I love changing into an entirely different person (at night)? / you

were standing there all alone on thin ice and I rushed to you when I saw the surface crack / I broke my ankle in the process (mind you, I don't know how to skate) / but when I finally reached where you were, all you did was give me a dry look and yelled, "Did I ask you to save me?" / my instincts tell me things are going to take a turn for the worse before they even do / and I start living in paranoia / what if everyone around me is only pretending? / I romanticise my life in hopes of making you stay because I know my love won't be enough / kinda messed up but I don't know any other way / even when everything's going right in the world, there's an emptiness that I just can't seem to decipher / what do you do when you want to stop running because your feet are tired but the timber bridge is rapidly collapsing and you've got no other choice?

• MJ.

By Neeharika