tails

i wish i could wear them
without having them yanked or stepped on.
i wish i could be one with them
without needing to feel disconnected from everything else.
i wish being me didn’t mean being broken apart from the meaning of humanity,
or having that meaning broken apart for you.
whenever i step outside
i’m greeted with the scent of rain
and the knowledge that everything around me
is somewhere else,
that everyone around me
is someone else.
even the ones who are meant to care don’t seem to,
because i am made to seem like a “gimmick” –
my identity painted in the light of an old wound we didn’t let heal.
not that i don’t have my share of old wounds.
it’s just that the new ones seem to cut even deeper.

— Riley Winters