He was the type of boy who said
He wanted to fix you
But three months later you'll find yourself crying
On a bathroom floor because
You forgot that you were made of glass
And it doesn't take much to shatter your bones.

And he'll swear that he loves you but
In four months you'll be outside of the ER
Begging for painkillers that'll make you forget
How to breathe because you no longer want to feel
What it's like to be at war.

And one day you'll learn how to drown in bottles of liquor
Because you don't want to remember who you are but
The way he tasted
Will always be burned into the back of your throat and
No amount of ***** can wash away
The reminder that you still keep the back door open
Incase he ever decided to come home.

You don't have to prove yourself
To anyone
You don't have to prove yourself
Just to be accepted into a group
Or into what others think
You should be
The Beauty about life is you have your own
You decide what to do with it
You can be whoever you want
You can do whatever you want
But please  don't listen to them
Don't be what they expect
Don't try to make
Yourself fit into their
Box of expectations of who you need to be
Please just be you and not them

~Katt

Unclasp your fingers
Your clenched fists
And know the release of
Giving in

Let him drift away
Let the ocean stand between you
As a testament
To the vast expanse
That exists there now.

Stop fighting the waves.
Stop braving the icy waters
Arm over arm
To reach him on the other side.

The water will always win.
And you never were much of a swimmer.
He's just a distant island now
Shrouded in fog
Somewhere over the horizon.

Rest now,
The fight is over.
Your mangled, frantic heart
Can slow
And begin another tempo
When it's no longer bleeding over
An unreachable coastline.

The unlikeliest place to find confidence
A boosted self esteem,
When others tore and ripped my mind,
My body image,
Bullied as a child and fourth it continued,
It never seized to amaze me,
The comments they threw,
Like stones they did harm me,
My name was ugly
I named myself unique
My name was freaky
I named myself limited
My name was what many thought I was then,
I named myself what I would be now.
I grew then to be the same as before,
Or so I had thought,
One day arrived at my college life,
Your camera flashed and I began to feel
Different...
They named me ugly
You made it feel as though I wasn't
They named me a freak
You used me for art
To this day,
Years after that,
Thanks to you,
I don't feel so ugly
Don't feel as much like a freak,
You showed me,
I can be infront of the camera and not always behind it.
Thank you,
For being more than a photographer,
More than a friend,
You were a boost to this bullied little girl's self worth and self esteem!

-Kathia Mariana Landeros