Psalms
Liturgy for the starved.
Sacraments of ruin.
PSALM I
“UNLIVED”
I miss things
that never happened.
Is it longing,
or just imagination dressed in grief?
PSALM II
“SHARP”
Some wounds
aren’t from what was done,
but from what
was never said.
PSALM III
“WATERING THE DEAD”
I forgave myself
quietly,
like watering
a dying plant.
PSALM IV
“THE ACHE”
What if the ache
isn’t proof of loss,
but a sign
we’re still reaching?
PSALM V
“THE OTHER ME”
There’s a version of me
that knew peace early.
I hope she
made it somewhere.
PSALM VI
“NECESSARY SHAPES”
Some days
I don’t know who I am,
only who
I had to be.
PSALM VII
“WHAT I SWALLOWED”
I said nothing
when I should’ve screamed.
And now silence
sits like guilt in my throat.
PSALM VIII
“THORNED”
I used to break
at every sharp word.
Now I bloom
with thorns.
PSALM IX
“FIRE-BEARER”
Maybe I’m not healing.
Maybe I’m just
learning how
to carry the fire.
PSALM X
“STILL BREATHING”
They call it the past,
but it still breathes,
still knocks
when I try to rest.
PSALM XI
“UNSAVED”
I wanted love
to save me.
Instead,
it showed me everything I wasn’t.
PSALM XII
“FLINCH”
They called it growing up.
I called it
learning to flinch
before I was touched.
PSALM XIII
“ADAPTATION”
I didn’t thrive.
I adapted.
There’s a difference
no one likes to admit.
PSALM XIV
“OFFERING”
I handed them
the softest part of me,
and watched them
teach it how to bleed.
PSALM XV
“THE STAYING”
It wasn’t the hurt
that stayed.
It was
how small it made me feel.
PSALM XVI
“ABSENCE”
Some days
I don’t feel broken,
just
missing.
PSALM XVII
“UNGRACEFUL”
I survived,
but not gracefully.
Sometimes the healing
looks like rage.
PSALM XVIII
“GREEN IN ASH”
Even in ruin,
I am reaching.
Even in ash,
something green waits.
PSALM XIX
“WHAT COUNTS”
I didn’t know better.
But I kept going.
And that,
too, is sacred.
PSALM XX
“TREMBLING VOICE”
They taught me silence.
But now I write
with a voice
that trembles and still speaks.
PSALM XXI
“UNNAMED”
My body
went through things
my mind
still refuses to name.
PSALM XXII
“HARD TO LOVE”
Sometimes I wonder
if I’m hard to love,
or just
used to being alone.
PSALM XXIII
“DISTANCE”
They broke me
and called it love.
I healed
and called it distance.
PSALM XXIV
“TAKING SPACE”
One day,
I stopped apologising
for the space
I was always meant to take.
PSALM XXV
“SOFT STRENGTH”
There’s power
in choosing softness
after the world
has made you sharp.
PSALM XXVI
“THE WEIGHT”
Grief doesn’t speak.
It sits.
Heavy,
in the corner of everything.
PSALM XXVII
“FOR PEACE”
I forgave them
because I needed peace,
not because
they deserved it.
PSALM XXVIII
“HOLDING HER”
I am not who I was,
but I still hold her
when the nights
get too long.