You Could

$250 WINNERALLAN NASON AWARD MILITARY WRITING you could

by Maysen Pribbernow

You could lay here underneath the safety of your covers that shield you from the dangers that surround you. But, if you lay here, hiding, too exhausted to move, the world will turn, the day will end, and you will still be here. You could clutch your pillow, pulling it deeper and deeper into your chest, begging it for the comfort you’ve been searching for. But if you grasp your pillow with every fiber of your body, hoping and praying it will ease pain lingering inside, it will still be nothing more than a pile of white cotton fabric. You could stay right here, refusing to open the curtains or flip on a light, refusing to let the sun warm your skin and dry your tears. But if you hide away in your lifeless hole of darkness, you’ll miss the world coming to life, the flowers blooming, the trees budding, life returning. You could cry and scream into your sheets, spilling your secrets of pain and despair as if they hold the answers, But if you continue to weep into your sheets, the tears will dry, your pain will remain, for the sheets will give you no solutions. You could refuse to sit up, to brush your twirls of tangled hair, to find something to nourish your body. But if you choose to lay and waste away, to let the pain consume your soul, you will find nothing, no peace, no rest. So, yes, you could sleep the day away in hopes the pain will dissipate into oblivion, and when you awaken, your heart will be healed and your soul will be whole. But when you awaken, you will be exactly as you were.