Every time he opened his mouth,
it was either to kiss or to lie.
Eventually, I got sick of both.

She wakes up each morning
Looks in the mirror
…
She puts an oversized hoodie over

Straightens her hair
Like every other girl in her school
Oh no
She burns her finger

Covers her imperfections
With powders
That suffocate her skin

Coats her eyelashes
With sticky black goop
That crusts when it dries

Her mother calls her down for breakfast
“I’m not hungry”
She says
She hasn’t been hungry for two weeks

You know what they say
Beauty is pain

She goes to school
Why is everyone else so skinny?
And beautiful?
And perfect?
She wishes she were them

But what she doesn’t know
Is that
Those skinny, beautiful, perfect girls
Wishes they were her

One day I woke up,
I realized that it was yesterday,
and that yesterday was no way to live tomorrow,
And if I did not change today,
My yesterdays awakening would have only been in sorrow..
For many yesterdays ago I took advice I should have never even borrowed ,
By those who chose to live today as though, they may never see tomorrow

If I could love
the limping
ugly
afraid
part of me
That I drag through the mud
and thorns

If I could let
the transparent
clawing
screaming
silhouette speak
Instead of kicking it
into the basement

If I could put
my deepest human essence
onto paper
for everyone to see

Then.
Then, I could be free.

Our brains.
Our lame brains.
Our almost-exactly-the-same brains.

Our tame (or insane),
Or left-out-in-the-rain brains,
With names and veins and emotions and pains:
Brains.

Our brains, full of stains,
Play games full of shame
The same way
That they say,
"Not today...

"This day's much too grey,
And I'd much rather stay
Locked away until May
I do say."

"In exchange,"
I exclaim,
"I will change the whole way
We see tomorrow, the past,
and today."