How can I explain to you that the version of you that exists within me is shedding itself, like an exoskeleton, making room for something more sinister. This version of you peels its skin, moving slowly amidst the foliage, sinking your claws into the topsoil and ripping apart the moss.
I extend my hands to feed you and offer you the water I collect. You tell me you must shed, and I pray you do so, with ease. It must hurt to be so contained.
Thoughtlessly, I aid you. I make room for you to grow, and I keep myself small. I feel my own skin shed in the process but I refuse to pick my scabs until you are clear and free. When my time comes, I intend to heal and be birthed, anew. Was it wrong to believe that you would, too?
I find secret pieces of you around me. A limb I did not know existed, and a fingernail you’ve keep hidden. The pieces do not match what I see. I begin to wonder if there’s someone else hiding amongst us, and fear dwells in the recesses of my gut. I have to bring you into my shelter, even if you are too big to fit in my arms, now.
So I place myself between a rock and a tree, and I stretch and stretch and stretch until I am happy I can hold you, and I take you away. But when we sleep at night, I hear sounds that feel familiar but with distorted pitch; almost like a crunching, or the smack of lips too intentional to be incidental. I stay hidden, afraid that we have been followed; under attack. I wonder where you are. I worry and I beg God to spare you and when God doesn’t aid me, I seek you myself only to find you eating your own body - the only version of you I knew.
Mourning you feels incomplete, because here you are crouched in front of me - licking your lips and watching nothing else, but me.