Everyone’s allowed to lose their shit except for me. Everyone’s allowed to mess up except for me. Keep it together while everyone around me chooses chaos.

Hold it together, because if you don’t, whoever else is around to hold the rope will drop it. Drop it like their life, their peace, doesn’t depend on it. Drop it because they know I’ll pick up that rope and tether us all back together.

Everyone’s allowed to buck, kicking up all the dirt, making the air thick and poison to breathe. Everyone’s allowed to slither through the dark, whispering and strangling the ones they’re meant to love. Everyone’s allowed to act like a fucking animal cause they know I’ll be there to scoop their shit into a neat fucking pile.

And I’ll bury their shit. Underneath the foundation of my house. Where no one would even think to look. I’ll keep burying it, even though the stench seeps out onto my clothes, my bed, and into my water. I’ll bury it because what other choice do I have? This is the law. I am the Burier of Shit and the Keeper of Peace.