She has been holding it all inside,

living by the rules —

yet she buried herself alive.

Like ink in water, she will dissolve

once she can no longer

hold what she’s told

She smells the earth,

walks the moss,

remembers the girl

who somehow got lost.

And she sets it free —

her anger and ache 

come alive in the trees.

She curls in the ferns.

Speaks to the earth.

And dissolves