The Trickle Down
Image Credit: @jiayuerrr on Instagram
“You can't keep the water from splashing up occasionally, causing a flow originating generations ago to dampen your cheeks once again.”
- Haze Prosser
her tears
ran down your cheeks,
and your tears ran down mine.
her insecurities on your body in my mirror.
her anxious thoughts running through your mind, occupying my brain.
her shouting flooding into your ears, making me flinch.
her self-hatred flowing out of your mouth and into my conscience.
i cannot handle the
t d
r o
i w
c n
k
l
e
so i collect my supplies
to separate myself from these never-ending, rapidly changing, ever-unpredictable tides.
but the flow doesn't end just because you have a plan to stop it.
when interrupting such a long-running flow,
you frequently find yourself gasping for air.
on the brink of drowning as you question how you landed yourself in these rapids
and struggle to remember a time of dryness.
but you were thrown in against your will.
the first gasp of air in an attempt to keep you afloat being your first breath in this world.
but as you build,
and build,
and build,
the flow becomes less,
and less,
and less.
you can't keep the water from splashing up occasionally, causing a flow originating generations ago to dampen your cheeks once again.
but now they roll off my cheeks and into the soil.
never to touch another face,
but to bring water to the flowers.
so maybe there's no way of fully stopping a waterfall effect.
but unlike those before me,
i'll be dammed.
“The Trickle Down” is a piece discussing the repercussions of not addressing and healing the generational trauma you’ve been given.