i hide the cuts
and call it healing.
i smile enough
to look like feeling.

i bled to feel,
then felt too much.
so now i flinch
at even touch.

no big event,
no cry for aid.
just pain, then choice,
then steel, then blade.

the scars are thin,
but memory lingers.
i still see red
between my fingers.

they call it pain,
i call it mine.
i earned the blood,
i crossed the line.

My screen lights up
Happy birthday
From some unknown friend

The impersonal well wishing from strangers
Has come around again

And then there’s you
Wishing love and success
That my dreams for the year come true

Unfortunately all my dreams
Come down and back to you

There’s some break in reality
Between the well wishing of dreams
And the truth that is all but broken
Between two once lovers.

When I was a kid,
emotions were
monotonous.
A candy was
just a candy.
Happiness came
fast and full.
I didn’t wonder
who gave it,
or why.
I just smiled
and ate.
Now,
I think too much
about hearts,
about hands,
about faces,
about the things
people want
when they give.
Now, a candy feels
like a trap.
Love feels like a deal.
And the world?
Too heavy
for joy to be simple.

"Men have opinions too."
No ****, of course they do.—
She murmurs as he rolls his eyes.
Maybe that’s the reason she tries.

"Men have opinions too."
She obviously knows that’s true.
She wouldn’t be the feminist she is,
If it weren’t for words like his.

"Men have opinions too."
If they didn’t you couldn’t say that,
COULD YOU?