BHS Inkwell 2017-2018

HowTo Survive By Bethany Werner

1. Make yourself become a mirror. Become a moonlit reflection of them and hide yourself behind silvery skin and smooth glass. 2. Tread lightly, for you are walking on eggshell ice. Make every footstep a prayer for flight and forgiveness. 3. Carve yourself away until you are a shadow. Don’t let them see you. What they see, they can destroy; hide yourself. 4. Stitch yourself shut with the sugar-coated lies they spoon down your raw throat. Try not to scream. 5. Frost your porcelain mask with untruths. Build layer upon layer of falsehood, until even you cannot remember what really lies beneath it, until the sharp china has cemented into your skin. 6. Forget yourself. Forget your dreams, your loves, those crystalline things that make it all worth bearing because if you blink, they will be stolen like breath before a fall, and you will be alone again. 7. Watch. watch the spiderwebbing rage swirl around you and strike the others down, but stay out of it. 8. No, Screw your eyes tightly shut and walk blindly, because if you open them you’ll be petrified. Bite your tongue and ignore the pained gnashing of teeth.

9. Breathe 10. Breathe

Jessica Martin

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