Screaming Upriver - SCP Foundation

From the private journal of Site-107 Director Gomaa, written on 29/09/2023.

screaming upriver

it’s incredible what the distance of a continent or two can do to the human

perception of others

upon the corner of this land

my bloodline was spawned

from there we followed the river’s example

and spread out

but you see things on a macro scale

you, far across the atlantic

cannot see the fingers of our rivers

the river is full of whispers

ancient, modern, something in between

but you can’t hear that, can you?

you don’t take the time to press your ear to it

and let the earth tell you its secrets

about the people who live here

an unstable region

the effort to lean down

stoop to our level

it’s too much for you

yet my neck aches and groans

reaching up to you

listening to your trees

when the wind whispers me your plights

and i listen to them

and my heart aches for you

o you who do not know

what it means to reciprocate

to scream is an act of desperation

disgustingly guttural and straining

inelegant and unpolished

retrospectively disappointing

but i screamed anyway

among echoes and a vacuous space

my own voice bounces back onto my face

and it shakes me by my shoulders

rocks my brain just right

and there it goes

prefrontal cortex into my cranium

the aching has yet to stop

it’s one thing to scream to nothing

it’s another thing to scream only to myself

in a room filled with you

there is an urge

to ask ‘how dare you?’

to interrogate and kick and cry

scream and rip hair from scalps

curl into a ball and pass out

‘you did this to me’

but that isn’t true, right?

we both know that

just look,

the locks are made of limestone

and their keys are on my wall