I’m in a cupboard
A dark cupboard
It’s too small for me
It’s so small I can’t move

The cupboard lurches
Rocking
It’s beginning to fall
I can feel it all around me
Falling
But I can’t move
My stomach drops

The cupboard I’m in
Hits the floor
With a bone-jolting crash

I think I can hear voices
So many voices
Help me

So many voices
Beyond these walls
Voices shouting and broken
Words that don’t match
Or even make sense

I push hard
At the sides of the cupboard
All around me
I lean on them
With all my weight
But nothing moves

Someone
Somewhere beyond me
Beyond these walls
Someone is crying

Dad
I can hear his voice
Saying my name
Over and over again
Like he can’t find me

“Sarah”
Im a little girl, sniffing flowers
“Sarah”
Im hiding, Can’t find me
“Sarah”
Im sleeping, don’t wake me
So many Sarahs
“Sarah Ann Nelson
Where are you?”
Dad!

Open
Please open
Why won’t this stupid cupboard open?
I push and push
Against the sides
But nothing moves

“Sarah”
Dad I answer
But he doesn’t hear me
“Oh Sarah” he whispers
My heart stops beating
At the sound of something sad
In his voice
He turned my name
Into a long
Drawn-out
Desperate
Unending cry
I can see it

I can see it
Behind my eyes
My own name
Stretching out into letters
Wide across the empty sky
“Sarah”

He calls my name
So that it streaks
Across the sea
Through the night
A shooting star
A lengthening shadow
That goes on and on
Until it’s stretched
As thin and fine
As a fishing line
About to break

Dad!!
I try to shout
But no sound comes out
Dad!!
Somewhere outside
Beyond these walls
Footsteps leading away from me
A door closes
Darkness
My name is silent
Its light’s gone out
He’s gone
And so am I