Toni Hedding

Paper on the Water Toni Hedding

A story of learning to call experiences for what they are, setting boundaries, breaking with excusing people for the pain they cause, and learning how to find love, strength, and freedom within. These poems begin with a heart in the midst of falling in love, one which gradually comes to recognize harmful patterns and, ultimately, discovers the strength to leave. They come together to create an honest, complicated picture of a person who, among so many things, has had to learn firsthand what abuse looks like, even in its most insidious forms. Like paper, our true selves are vulnerable to outside forces which conspire to rip us apart. But even in tatters, our truth remains. Content and trigger warnings for some poems: emotional abuse.