Trophy Love is Nothing but Shiny

And when they break your heart don’t
ask why or listen to apologies. Don’t
crack your chest open for something already done.

You will, at all times of the day, burst
like a heavy cloud,
go still,
become a barren desert or all of the above. More and more
you will hate the world, a constant nagging. More and more
you will want to crawl out of your skin— a prison,
use your heart as a bomb to evade all things. More and more
you will ache to scalp them,
wear their claws a trophy around your neck. More and more
you will forget the heartache, a plundered wound
chest an unhinged jamb. More and more,
you will break

out of a shell already cracked and too small. More and more
you will grow into love
personal and full and hungry to
treat yourself and pamper yourself and flutter your own heart. More and more

you will love.

Gervanna Stephens is a girl from a small Caribbean island with congenital amputation. She is a poet, educator, and a proud Slytherin. Gervanna has had poems published in several print and online magazines, including Whirlwind Magazine, 12 Point Collective, Spillwords and Anti-Heroin Chic. She hates public speaking, has two sisters who are way better writers than her and thinks unicorns laugh at us when we say they aren’t real.