<\/p>\n
I. \u201cAll you who labor and are heavy laden\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Misunderstood\u2013again. You throw your head before you bite down You hold your breath. The table, a chasm You reach across, But her sharp reply II. \u2026Come to Me\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n You hear a word Say it to her.<\/p>\n Let her go.<\/p>\n III. \u2026And I will give you rest.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Goodbye. Not a steady undoing You held her, dear, <\/p>\n FOOTNOTE<\/strong><\/p>\n 1: \u201cGoodbye\u201d in Kinyarwanda.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sarah Gantt, former Editor-in-Chief of The Williams Telos<\/em>, graduated from Williams College in June 2023 with a Bachelor’s in Art History and English and a minor in French. She currently teaches English in Kigali, Rwanda as a Fulbright grantee. In her free time, she uses her writing and editing experience to help local arts organizations with various projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I. \u201cAll you who labor and are heavy laden\u2026 Misunderstood\u2013again. Heart trampled, Torn to pieces. You throw your head back. A nasally laugh squeezes past the roof of your mouth before you bite down hard. Clenched teeth, sharp inhale. You hold your breath. Silence as you sit across from her. The table, a chasm … Continue reading “Laden”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2354,"featured_media":991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49347],"tags":[49361],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issues","tag-threads"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHeart trampled,
\nTorn to pieces.<\/p>\n
\nback. A nasally laugh
\nsqueezes past the
\nroof of your mouth<\/p>\n
\nhard. Clenched teeth,
\nsharp inhale.<\/p>\n
\nSilence as you sit
\nacross from her.<\/p>\n
\nbetween you.<\/p>\n
\nan arm extended.
\nYour tongue offers
\na mending phrase.<\/p>\n
\nstings your skin,
\nand deep you
\nfeel the pain.<\/p>\n
\npulled from the deep
\nrecesses of the Spirit:
\n\u201cMurabeho [1], goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nclean break but a<\/p>\n
\nof habits and associations
\nthat took years to form.<\/p>\n
\nuntil she began to
\nburn your fingers.<\/p>\n