Ribcage and Ribbon

Lavender roots at the core
____of my despair.
_____________Meaning even in melancholy,
_____I still flower.
________It is not easy to walk
through life with cracked
___________________dreams. My ache, an ulcer
__________the size
__of a generation. I swear, if I
___________________hand you
my misery, you will crumble
_________________________from its weight.
But isn’t it beautiful how I corral
____________________the rifts with
______metaphors? How I language
worry with wreaths.
_______________They say to_survive, one must
remember where one
___________came from so I carry the me
-mory of home
____________in my rib
-cage: a rib
__________________________-bon tied to my past.
A broken television.
________________A wilting fan. My aunty’s pale
_voice through December’s dark doors. __I do not have
the privilege
_________________to contemplate failure.
_______This morning,
my mother’s tears dripped
______________________out of_my eyes
________to wake me up from slumber.