Breath & Shadow
Spring 2025 - Vol. 22, Issue 2
"What I Think When You Ask Me How I’m Doing"
written by
Makena Metz
I am living - fully living and alive. I am
in between. It’s just fine. I am not broken-
sometimes, I am broken. I’m forced to change.
There’s doctor’s appointments. Dirty dishes,
walking the dog, wandering through a mall.
Time mows me over at the grocery store.
In moments, life’s uncomfortable- it hurts. It sucks.
It’s good. I always give myself permission to cry,
to laugh. I’m an angry petulant bitch. I love that bitch.
She says, “life’s unfair” and then goes and fucking lives it.
There’s no mincing words in the recipe of my trauma,
but my story is not your inspiration porn.
Makena Metz is a Writer & Songwriter for the Page, Screen, and Stage. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Chapman University. Her prose and poetry have been published with The Literary Hatchet, The Clockhouse Review, For Page and Screen, The Fantastic Other, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Arkana, Strange Horizons, and many more.
Find her work @makenametz on social media and check out her website!