Hypervigilance in the Modern Household by Maria Connour (Ohio, 21)

​I so often ignore these things in a futile attempt for survival, 
But I know they will erupt into something bigger.
What will start as something so small, so miniscule,
Will eventually erupt into something I cannot contain with any amount of perfection. 
It’s like waiting for a pot to boil, except you forget about it and leave and the house burns down. 
You still have to sleep in the house, though, because it’s your only house and you’re a child. 
So you lay down in the remains, where there are no walls, only boards, and try to sleep. 
Maybe one night it will storm and there won’t be a roof or walls to protect you.
When this happens you will just let it hit you and freeze.
You will welcome the numbness.
The next day you will get up and start building the house again.
It will not stand long, but what’s important is that you rebuild anyway. 

​Maria Connour is a twenty-one year old English major at Ohio Northern University from Findlay, Ohio. She works as the Fiction Editor for her school's literary magazine, Polaris, and she has written for the school's newspaper, the Northern Review. She has also been published in Anti-Heroin Chic and Girls Right the World.