In this lyrical essay, I consider the impact that the War on Drugs had on my father’s life, before he ultimately overdosed in 2015. The story takes place in a taxi cab. A New York blizzard. I carry him in my arms.

Where do we carry emotional trauma in our physical bodies? How might we begin to soothe our inner child?

The symbolic box compels us to compartmentalize painful stories, secrets. In this associative, lyrical essay, I walk into the attic of mind.

I offer a brief visualization of my friend Nick’s book metaphor for grief. Let’s embrace impermanence so we can live in love, not fear.

The space between head and heart is where intuition lays. This essay considers how we might use distance to feel close.

In this associative, familial portrait, I consider womanhood.

I wrote this essay when I was 15-years-old. Overcome with grief, I grapple with my father’s death through a revisiting of his letters from prison.