KNEE BRACE PRESS

A place for stories about chronic illness, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.

Coping Mechanisms

By

I bled like ink through paper
Painted over watercolour
Every season, same reason
Leaving phantoms, pink fusion

I bled with every moment
Mistakes crossed over
Thinning out centimetres
Every action adding layers

I brushed too hard, too often
In the canvas, holes opened
To swallow all my sanity
To break my mind’s gravity

Till all my being drowned
In its bending
Like a ship in the night
Like a heart feeling fright
Like prey taking flight
Like a light escaping—

Contributor

  • A photo of a young Asian woman with long, brown hair gazing at the camera. She is wearing a white shirt. The photo appears to have been taken as a selfie.

    I am 21 years old, I work at a sandwich place and I teach at a local community center on the weekends.