Radiance

By Janna

I glide my hands around his neck

Press my fingers along the bones there

So hard, for someone so soft

Our cheeks touch, my arms

Wrapping around his body

Constricting, holding, touching

Don't let go, can't let go

Can't let anyone tear us apart

My mother cries all the time now

Our house is in underwater slow-motion

My father hasn't spoken a word,

Just occasional profanities

Mumbled roughly under his breath

One day my father finds my boy and me,

Sharing kisses in my room

He yells a jumble of words

I don't really listen to what they are

I just hear the volume, the intensity

The only words I make sense of

Are the last: "Don't ever come back."

I walk past the Krauzer's convenience store

On my way to my new one-room apartment

Light from the "LOTTERY" sign

Stains my face, turning me neon orange

I am shining and glittering now

Rain falls, blending with moonlight, and

Forms rainbows that gather across my skin

There's nothing I can change

With a towel I keep in the bathroom,

I can wipe the rainbows off my skin

But I can't wipe them from the pulsing

Blood in my heart, can't let that go dry

Don't let go, can't let go

Can't let anybody tear me apart