Catriona Ward

I’m not even asking to be loved back, just to know what it feels like.

Good and bad can feel like the same thing, I think, if they’re intense enough.

I’m a sea person and I never even knew it.

The world’s the same everywhere.

I wash my face over and over again with cold water before breakfast, so Mom and Dad don’t see redness around my eyes or any other traces of tears.

Living by the sea is tough on paint, and just as hard on the mind. Maybe I’ll write it down later.

He has a rough, sad look like a cowboy in a western. But he’s a sea cowboy, which is even cooler.

She’s chipped and scraped all over, and you can see every colour she’s ever been painted, her past written on her like a record

They know we’re no threat – we’re part of the ocean now.

I want to keep all this life corked tight inside me, bubbling and dangerous.