Don’t talk to me about pain—
how you breathe it in and it breaks you.

Pain fragments into fractals in my cells
as my nerve endings speak to my brain;

my muscle says ouch, but the pain isn’t real.
It isn’t real. I carry the weight of pain

in my mind so my body can function
without feeling. I hold the pain, caress it,

clutch it to my chest, raging against
this trap of flesh and bones and blood.

---

Makena Metz (she/her) is a writer and songwriter for the page, screen, and stage. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Chapman University. Her prose and poetry have been published with The Literary Hatchet, The Blunt Space, The Mid-Atlantic Review, Boudin, The Fantastic Other, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Arkana, Strange Horizons, and many more.  

Instagram: @makenametz
TikTok: @makenametz
Facebook: @MakenaMetzWrites
Website: makenametz.com