So when the time comes for me to be still

and know, I run from my body to my mind
and these castles I’ve created—to the 
Spirit, to the garden, to my secret songs.
You are silent in all of my dreams, ever
haunting, and the tension between jaw 
and ear tightens until I can no longer
speak or be spoken to, and I carry
the weight of stress I’m too young
to have in tissue that is too soft 
to scar.