This Is What It Is Like

by Lawrence Bridges

Art by Natalie Kwon

I sat down for a fireside chat with myself to review the design for scaffolding to envelope my skeleton as I grew

inwardly. You grow up. You grow old. You grow angry and tired but you never grow out of the shock that it is you who wakes up each day.

I'm shaking off the understanding that I'm mild and wish for clear skies and wildflowers each morning when I rise. If pain were blood,

physical work would dull the body by speeding time toward hunger and fatigue and rest and pretense, next morning. That type of being

is something you can discuss with yourself and say this is how it feels to be moving from somewhere to nowhere. This is what

it is like to be me.

Natalie Kwon, Still,

---