Quit

by Mary Chandler Philpott 

And the sky is fire outside my window, it is stirring something up inside.

What have I done?

I crawled my way out, that’s what I did.

I don’t know what I need.

I don’t know what I need.

I don’t know what I need.

-

Can I tell you something? I’ll stand beneath and hold the flames. (I never liked burning bridges.) Right now, they chew down my arms. (I think I need to let this one go.) It’s darkening, it’s sickening. Don’t go just yet, says the sky. No, of course, I say. Not yet. I’ll stay.

-

Hurting and nonsensical, I am alone and the sky is a masterpiece. Why does it do this to me?

I am no poet, I am barely a traveler. Are my eyes even open? Someone look at me and tell me. Can you see my eyes?

It’s going, it’s going.

Can you see my eyes?

* * * * *

Mary Chandler Philpott is an MA student at the University of Virginia. She currently lives in Manassas with her fiancé Brandon and their puppy Edward Rochester.