• bekka and jake were shells
• containers of nothing
• flippant constructions
• cardboard cutouts

//

• i am stronger now.

//

• i can handle emotions
• and the trauma
• and the weight of a broken world,
• and the stress
• and the pain
• and the mood swings up and down and back again,
• and the changes
• and the hope
• and the fear that everything i love will be taken away.

//

• i am stronger now.

//

• sage and snake
• are comrades in arms
• two sides of the same scratched coin
• ready to guide and fight as needed.