was tryna get my thoughts out n ig i wrote a poem: even though it keeps happening, i never catch it at first. only when my jaw begins to ache do i realize i’ve been ripping the inside of my mouth apart w my own teeth, for what must’ve been a long time. there are scars there now, raised ridges n little crescent marks tht keep thickening w time, but panic distorts time into something shapeless. minutes dissolve quietly while my body locks itself into survival. everything tightens w/o warning n seemingly w/o a clear reason. then the ringing starts in my ears. sharp, electric, consuming. it somehow swallows my surroundings, the entire world, into silence while becoming the only deafening thing i can hear. as if it grows so loud inside me tht reality itself gets drowned beneath it. n then i taste blood & realize maybe my body remembered something before my mind did.