A List Poem by Athena King

1. A series of "no" chanted into the ear of night. Each one more. Choked than. the. last. Until they break my very heart.
2. I have been a coffin for a month. The only words my mother could speak when my older sister died within her.
3. If you knew how much I wanted to die you would let me. Lit up on a screen in the middle of the night that was not seen until the morning but for once it was not too late.
4. A three-inch binder filled to the brim. A binder that is filled with the reports a single person made about being bullied.
5. You are the only reason why I am alive. A sentence like a prayer that weighs like a collar and drags me into darkness.