It’s a feeling that develops in the center of the chest as if all the deep sorrow one could contain gathers up into a tight ball. Then it starts to rip at my insides. It leaves me feeling empty everywhere else in my body, but in the center of my chest, it feels like the world is collapsing in on me. You have the power to make my world collapse in on me. You have the power to break me.
Yet, when we are together or when I read your heart-filled texts, the feeling is not full of sorrow. It is a feeling of eternal joy and happiness that swells in my heart. It still makes my world collapse, but not into ruins because at those moments nothing else matters when considering how happy you make me then in your presence and embrace.
Shayla Hickerson
11 May 2015