002: growing pains

i used to: believe i would die by eighteen; dig burial sites into my arm; pray my ribs would shatter and flatten my chest and body upon impact; play tag with the boys until the boys saw through my chest as if it were a black hole; feel my skin tightening around my body as if my flesh would spill out from my pores; pray to god until i realized god had already forsaken me; if a snake is unable to shed its skin, it will die; to become is to be hypothetically haunted; if a stone is thrown into the pond, the reflection of the girl would ripple into nothingness as if she never existed; if she were to have existed, she would be dead.