Her soul
wrapped in ribbon
once tied in a bow
has come undone.
She is unraveling
in strange and unstoppable ways.
Once the whole package,
now a single red strand exposed --
snagging on unexpected things.
Fearing she will come to nothing
but a frayed and loose end,
she tries to wind herself back up with
bad poetry and tea
soup and books
visualizations before bed.
Hoping to shut out what triggers her --
which is nearly every word
that has come out of her mouth
in the last year.
The world has gone mad
and so has she --
only, her madness looks like
promises she can't keep
plans she unmakes
every (haunting) dream she ignored.
She is unraveling
in strange and unstoppable ways.
Finally realizing,
after all this time,
she had mistaken
unraveling for unwrapping.
Stacy Oler ©