Not much has changed. We are still just a couple kids with nothing better to fucking do. But things have changed. We have changed. She, our former utopia, has changed.

Her once clear waters are now murky and swirled with trash. The waves that cradled my body, like a child, now ripped through the rocks feverously and malevolently. The smiling, painted eyes are now faded and dimmed; the cracks in the walls formed wrinkles in their tired faces. We realize that we have too much to loose.

Our youth rebellion was a product of boredom, a way of trying to find us in a world of uniformity. When I left, my love, you stayed. Your roots grew deeper into the ground, until they touched the hot core, while I ripped mine out. I had to leave. I had to scatter my seeds in order to grow; your soil no longer nourishes me. I don’t know if it was the city that changed, or we, but the glimmer was not as rich a gold.

But I will always return to her. She holds my secrets, my fears, my roots, and my seeds at the bottom of river. Here is where I will rot, with the ghosts of her past, and the demons in her wind. Here is where my bones will decay, and my name will be the only thing left behind, etched into history. She will welcome me back, like forgotten lovers, and we will splash in her waters and hide within the trees for all of eternity.

She is my protector; she will always be my home.

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Location: Richmond, VA
All clothing is thrifted.

Photographed by Helen Westerman / Styled and Modeled by Rachel Kiser / Modeled by Amanda Lough