Sonder: Youth Mental Health Stories of Struggle & Strength | Page 80

WHO IS SHE? CONT.
she runs up and down, back and forth, desperate to escape the
screams hidden within
along the sidelines of soccer fields, around her school, through
grocery store aisles
pinpricks of black dots dance in dizzying patterns, blurring her vision
blind to the whispers that slip from the mouths of strangers
who watch with gaping mouths
as an emaciated girl runs with open arms toward the precipice of death
the grip of her illness holds her tightly
its force crashes down upon her in waves
powerful, relentless, overwhelming
slamming into her weak knees
her thin limbs quiver, tremble, tumble out from under her as the
tide breaks
she collapses underneath the grip of the current
pinned below the surface, breathless, gasping for air
her rawboned body too damaged for repair
she clings onto life, a life stolen by a disorder that lured her in
a dagger disguised as an anchor to keep her afloat, she clings onto
false promise
a little girl, 12 years old
drowned by deception and darkness
April 14 , 2013
snow falls like ash from the sky
covers the barren fields where her soccer game was to be played
panic claws at her chest
trapped inside her house, her head
nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from the voices screaming
to push through the exhaustion
the emotion
the emptiness
to burn through thin tissue, withered, weak, wilted
to set her decaying insides ablaze
78  Eating Disorders & Identity