Unbridled girl
Big, dangerous animals have big, dangerous confidence. Never stopping to wonder if what they are doing is right, if they need to run so fast, if coming in first is what really matters.
It’s primal, instinctive. No wonder they call it unbridled.
Suddenly I’m 15 years old - just realising my own strength and all that comes with it. There is so much energy coursing through my body I don’t know what to do with it. I am compelled, for the first time in my life, to run. Setting off like I’m being chased, slowing only when my lungs begin to ache in a way that feels like a firm warning.
Everything about this is surprising: how loud my feet sound in the suburban darkness; how my breath quickly makes its own rhythm; how far I make it before I need to stop. My skin stings from the cold air, but I’m hotter than I thought possible.
There is a furnace in me now, and I wonder what I will feed it with.
