My stomach grumbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wake up at 5:15 am;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15 minutes later than I normally do<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And hungrier than I\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All I hear are the soft thumps of heartbeats,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The slow patterns of breathing,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dimness and stillness<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which only exist between dusk and dawn;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which I can only experience <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the owls and I are the only ones awake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this time I am alone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I don\u2019t feel lonely\u00a0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The darkness is blinding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The silence is deafening.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, I feel serene and at ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of my life is tranquil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am<\/em> living the perfect life, after all <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I tiptoe to my mother\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s still asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watch as her chest rises and falls<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like waves swashing softly on the sea shore<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why am I saying this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve never even been to the beach,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve never seen the waves,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve never felt the sea breeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Am I enslaved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No\u2026 I couldn\u2019t be\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I gracefully leap onto her bed <\/p>\n\n\n\n And lay smack in the middle of her pillow,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filling up the space right next to her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I start to purr,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to match my breathing pattern with hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I fail miserably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her breaths are always so much longer than mine\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except every now and then<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she comes home from school<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lays on the bed meant solely for sleeping,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curls up into a ball just like the ones she purchased for me to play with <\/p>\n\n\n\n And starts to break down;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bed intended for sleeping transforms into a bay,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her woes engulf her like a wave,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trapping her under the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n She thinks that her sorrows are kept quiet,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like secrets silently shown in the privacy of a secluded beach,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I\u2019m always watching,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Observing how her heartbeat starts racing <\/p>\n\n\n\n Never allowing her breath to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is during these episodes<\/p>\n\n\n\n That my breaths are miraculously longer than hers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n But right now she is asleep<\/p>\n\n\n\n And her breathing is still deeper than mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I stand up on her pillow <\/p>\n\n\n\n And nudge my small head underneath her arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She stirs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Groans at me for waking her up \u201cso early\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet this time I was actually late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15 minutes later than I usually wake her up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n She rolls on her side,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picks me up,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walks to the door<\/p>\n\n\n\n And locks me outside of her room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I stare at the wooden barricade that separates us.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thin, but impenetrable,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like the surface tension of the water she submerges herself in<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which keeps me out <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeps me away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve always been afraid of bodies of water, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n My mother eventually awakens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7:30 on the dot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She races past me in haste,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fills my bowl with some food,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Says a short<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll see you later, Mora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before shutting another door;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving for a world that scars her like a war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those seven hours always feel so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pigeons perched on the patio coo,<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sounds from the neighbor\u2019s construction booms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am surrounded by sounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet the only human whose sound I seek,<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only person I would rescue in a heartbeat,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The elevator hums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keys jingle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They scratch the wood of the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She walks through the entry,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her head hung low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n She rushes past me, back to her room,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to the ocean she keeps drowning herself in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n She shuts her door once again<\/p>\n\n\n\n But forgets to lock it this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I slip through,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sit on the edge of her bed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n And purr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All I can do is keep purring;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep hoping that my precious, pristine purrs<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will provide her with the same peace that I partake in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe then she, too, will live a perfect life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My stomach grumbles. I wake up at 5:15 am; 15 minutes later than I normally do And hungrier than I\u2019ve ever been. All…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":1862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-writing","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2029,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions\/2029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}