This won’t hurt. Maybe.
By Melissa Lipnick
I whisper to you, “you’re safe.”
I make pretend promises. This won’t hurt. You’ll feel better soon. I’m not going anywhere, ever.
This cascades. You, sick. You, stronger, better. The world shuts down. Triage our life.
I disappear over and over. But then, we have new life. A baby!
Do you still trust me? Promises broken from that hospital room, to school here one day then gone the next, to your vibrant 3D life gradually flattening bit by bit into a screen.
Maybe this is just a blip in your 6 years. Maybe the week you were sick and the year the world was sick and the unanswered game of peek-a-boo will be something for the history books. Or maybe, that week, and this year, changed me. Maybe it changed you.
Written by Melissa Lipnick, a writer and artist in Cleveland, Ohio.