'I've Been Broken Since I Was Ten!'

Keep wiping away this shame and feel the blessings that come with this pain. You're meant to do big things on this planet.

Project for a Fainting (1979), Dorothea Tanning

Dear Polly,

As I write to you, there is this weird burning sensation in my heart that keeps coming up and then further up and no, it’s not gas. I want to be funny right now but the truth is I just don’t have it in me. I’ve been broken since I was ten. I didn’t have what you would call a normal childhood, and…