Vernal

When I wake, the snow has already started, the schools are closed, the events canceled. Your parents call from a sunnier land and say they won't make it; the bathroom sink shines, spotless, the mouse traps have been hidden in the kitchen corners. You scramble your plans and wonder what comes next. Everyone seems to be falling to pieces and I carry their despairing shards in plastic bags around the city. It occurs to me I never thought anything could change. I assumed I would be a broken child forever, but it turns out her terrified limbs only reside in a small corner of my adult body. She will never move away, but maybe she doesn't have to. We've been together this long.

And I no longer leave those I love behind.