the back story is the real deal, the workhorse of survival, the keeper of the scars.
the hidden proof of all the ways in which i keep on scaffolding myself to my own life, the singular ways in which i hold all the little deaths that want to consume me, at bay.
how i refuse them permission to cross the floor, deny them the opportunity of making a nest inside the delicate moss-bed of my hope.
all the small side plates on which i serve myself stolen portions of beauty.

and here i am not speaking of fabric and thread, but i am sure you already know this.

© Liezel Graham 2023

{📷 the back story is the real deal, the workhorse of survival, the keeper of the scars}