I Didn’t Mean for You
I didn’t mean for it to happen.
The plan was so simple
after the sickness;
succeed at schooling
with something in science.
Find a job that decided you
deserve to stay alive.
Do that.
Everything else I hoped
would spill around the sides like slow-pour sand.
Love as vase filler
as tissue paper
as bubble wrap
as Easter basket confetti.
Everything else I hoped
would come in hour-glass time.
I didn’t mean for it to be a kind of grace.
Alison Gerhard is a researcher and disability activist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in inorganic chemistry. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Wordgathering, Rat’s Ass Review, and Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit.
