Branches Book

BRANCHES

And maybe red tail lights illuminating your face are the closest you will ever come to a spotlight and the traffic around you is as close as you’ll come to a crowd.

Sunset

Her mornings were bagels and coffee

and where she grew up and her nights were bars on the strip and her first tattoo. She could never find enough smoke or alcohol to fill the holes in her chest

The deeper into the city she got, the further she felt from home. It's dark and it's raining and the streets are flooding like they do in LA and she's not thinking about the road while Frankie Valli sings “I love you baby” and her car skids through the backstreets of Hollywood. And she bites her lip until it bleeds and run her fingers through her hair until strands start to fall out. She locks herself in the bathroom and whispers “Stop tearing your hair out, you’re happy now” and she’d grip the edge of the counter and whisper “stop crying, you’re older now.” And the blood from her lip would fall in the sink and she’d whisper

“stop bleeding, you’re stronger now.” So she’d splash cold water on her face and unlock the bathroom door and the world would be outside,

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