Grief • • • Emilee Rae Hibshman

Grief

Emilee Rae Hibshman

I thought of you harshly for weeks and months, time flying by as I hurt myself by hating you, focusing on the bad, seeing the world through angry eyes.

Now, I think of you softly in retrospective moments of weakness, because I remember the hardness you placed into my heart.

It took me years to thaw the space in my chest that you filled with ice water –to reach deep inside and remove each brick from the walls I built to keep you out.

Today, I think of you softly in hindsight because I’m a softer person now and you don’t get to claim credit for who I am.

Encased in Ice

Isabelle Ritz