When you hear about it, you just shake it off

Shake it off like it’s nothing

You know about it, then shrug and go on

But have you ever thought about how they felt

How they felt when they swallowed the pills

Overdosing

When they ate and gave it up again

Over and over

When they went through bottle after bottle

Slipping farther away

When they took the blade, and dragged it over their wrist

Slitting the veins

Have you never thought about what it is like

To pick up a blade, to drag it over your skin

Letting the sting register

Watching, with a sick fascination, as the beads

The beads of crimson blood drip down your arm

Mixing with the tears pouring

Pouring, as you know, you know you’re not good enough

When you realize that you don’t belong

When you realize that you shouldn’t be alive

And you slit the veins

Repeatedly, hoping for it to happen, wanting to leave

Knowing that no one will care

That no one will miss you

Then you come to the prison

The prison called school

Where all you feel is everyone staring at you

Still thinking that you’re just some ******

Some creep that doesn't belong

They don’t know how hurt you are inside

They don’t know how much their words have pierced you

They don’t know that you want them to notice

That you want them to care

You just tug at the sleeves of your sweater

Even though it’s a hot summer day

Just tell yourself that it must stay on

That they can’t know

But they must know

And they might ask you about it

Why you’re different

Why you’re changed

Antisocial

And you want to tell them

You want someone to care

But you lie through your teeth

You lie as you feel the pain start to come

And you know that the lies are the only way to make it out

To make it out without more taunts

And before you regret anything, you go

You go and blend with the crowd

Already wishing you had said something

Anything

Just to keep someone there

Hoping that maybe someone would come

That someone wouldn’t want you to go

But the day drags on

And you just get more side glances

Snickers behind your back

And you finally run home

And burst into the bathroom

Where they wait, shining

Whispering your name

And you know that someone

Someone needs you there

And, already feeling the rush of emotion

You throw off the sweater, the armband

And you pick up the little blade

So much malice

So much relief, in something so small

And just push it into the soft flesh on your arm

Then drag it slowly

Letting yourself feel it

Make it be a punishment

For not being enough

For being a failure

For not being wanted

And you think back, back to the start of the day

When you just wanted to ask a simple question

When they told you to shut up

When they told you they didn’t care

When they told you to jump off a bridge

To just end your life

And as you sit there, hair falling over your face

You just see the earlier scars

Some thin and white

Some thicker, like little knots in your skin

And you go over them, over and over

Until your arm is covered in blood

And you just watch it

Letting it smear

Get on your shirt

Your shorts

And with every slice

You tell yourself not to be such a coward

To just face it

To do it

Because this is the relief

This is what you wait for all day

This is all that goes through your mind all day

Every day

The relief, once you’re alone

When you can hurt yourself, as much as you can

Because you hate yourself so much

Because you just want to leave

And it’s a relief, it really is

No one will understand

When you were younger

And you read about it

You heard about it

You thought how hard it must be

To hurt yourself knowingly, on purpose

But once you start

You can’t stop

Because it’s an addiction

And you can’t break free of its iron grip

And nothing anyone ever says will change it

We all say things we might not mean

We tell people that they are losers

That they are useless

That they should die

But there are people, sensitive, that will take it

The wrong way

Or maybe the right way

You don’t know their power

but its already too late




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