The ache inside of my heart
has become an open wound.
Everyone is staring at me
like nothing seems to be wrong.
like I can patch it up
and all is well.

But all is not well,
it never has been
not since you left.

I start to think about the cruelty of life.
How I lost two best friends
in the course of a month
one by death
and one by the pain staking
ambivalence of makeshift love.

I feel so lost and alone.

Sleeping next to someone
who is hurting too
so it feels like my hurt is less.
Not for lack of effort
but because of the thoughts
that consume this distraught mind.

I think less of myself
than others
so everyone else needs time
and I just need to **** it up.
Move on,
other people need you
more than you could ever need them

Straighten up,
strengthen that backbone
and don't let yourself wither away
inside the arms of tragedy.
This isn't what she would have wanted.

Don't give him the satisfaction
of knowing he has won
knowing he has made a mockery
of all the potential love in your life.
His tongue digs a sharp wound
inside of your back
and you're having trouble standing upright again.

You feel it every time
you try to move in the right direction
because he always used to be there
watching your back to dig in deeper.

But he does not control you anymore-
do not let him crawl inside of your mind.
Start fresh.
Renew yourself.

You are in love again
with a boy that
slowly closes that
cut down your back.
He makes it feel
like it was never there in the first place-
but you still feel the sting sometimes.

He will caress your body
and make a wrong move
so you flinch at the progress you've made.
you clench and feel as the past
has infected your entire future
but it's all inside of your head.

You have healed,
let yourself do as such.

She would not want you
wasting your time
dreading her lack of existence.
She would want you to live
and love again and again.
She would tell you to
never think of the wound again-
stand up straight
put on heels
and walk like you own the night
because you do.

And now so does she,
and all of my days
are spent wishing she would have stayed-
but life is sick that way.
Taking away your chance at redemption
by making it impossible to speak.
Stitches around your mouth
and between your fingers
because talking seems to hurt too much
and reaching out has never been
something I was good at
and now I can't.

Too worried about everyone else.
Too worried about this life
that buries itself inside of this body
and demands refuge.

I've always put others before myself-
and this is just another textbook
collecting dust
telling everyone how to fix me
no one wants to read it.
No one cares to read it
so here I am
collecting dust
withering away
from the outside in.

No one pick me up-
I'm staring a collection.

I remember those mornings when I'd drive down the street and see you, wanting to pause time forever so that moment would be framed and I could admire you for eternity
Those days when you weren't mine to hold and I'd dream that maybe one day I may be with someone who's soul is as beautiful as yours

I remember those nights when we'd sit in the same room, on the same sofa and all that lay between us was a cushion and our insecurities, a cushion and uncertainties
Then I'd go home and try to remember what you looked like and smile because I've just breathed the same air as you for ten minutes

I remember those nervous laughs that conceal how I truly felt as we sat across the coffee bar table, and I try to stare but not for too long just to know the colour of your eyes
A mix of brown and green, that shouldn't work but for your beauty one eye colour could never be enough to suffice and compliment the complexion of your sun kissed skin

I remember how I felt when you said we should just be friends, like a rain sodden child on a Decembers night thwarted by a bolt of lightning through the heart, that I will always remember
Then I remember time as a distance and for what seemed like a thousand miles my naked feet had walked since your face I last saw. You emerged when I fell and held me, your arms were my sanctuary, my heart still belonged to you

I remember the first time we kissed, so unexpected yet so welcome, for ten seconds my heart stopped as our lips tenderly stroked, my hands for the first time ventured to places only in a forbidden dream that was locked away to stop the hurt of not holding you

And then my hands rested delicately against the skin that graced your hips, a groove perfectly created for my hands to sit, as fitting as a glass slipper, I held you for what seemed like forever, not wanting to move in case i woke, but could life be so cruel ?

I remember those nights when you'd stand in the evening window, wearing only your nakedness, so elegant and strong even the moon couldn't break through your form
You stood silhouetted in that window, the smoke dancing around your skin, how jealous I was of that smoke

I remember your laugh, your enchanting laugh, and how you said you loved me, begging me to hold you, and I complied, I was a slave to your beauty, you asked for my love and so my love was surrendered

I remember the day you bore me a child, My love for you was split in two and then multiplied, and I watch you cradle our son, the purest form of life lying delicately upon my dreams

I remember the day you became my wife, I held out my finger and you embraced it, I have you now, but you are still the woman I wish I could hold forever

I still remember the day we became homeowners, I wish we could lock ourselves away from this world, I've still not explored all of you yet

Those days how could I ever forget

Or: On How To Let Go

1. The first time your grandmother cries
and says you died along with your grandfather,
smile.
You never liked her much anyways,
so being dead to her- while not ideal-
isn't the worst way to go.
2. Remember that time you went shopping
for your first pair of cargo shorts
and the same grandmother was RIGHT QUICK to point out
to the cashier that you are very much a girl
all soft curves and short limbs
and regrets and quiet voices
and you gotta try not to smack her.
3. Remember when a Wal Mart worker said,
"Good morning, Sir"
and again, that same grandmother
was right quick to point out
that I was very much a lady,
that I was petite and passive
and everything she wanted me to be
4. Just... Hide it.
Because while they may say they're okay with it
you still see the sideways glances
and the glares, and the stares,
and the cries of, "How the hell do you expect to be a boy
if you're wearing that skirt!"
5. Try your best to explain it to every person
that you'll ever bring home
to meet this family.
Say... "Sometimes, I kind of feel
a little bit like a boy."
Underplay it.
Severely.
Don't tell them that some days
you wake up crying and clutching at your chest
wishing it was gone
that some days death sounds more preferable
than living in this body
Don't tell them that it's way deeper
than "sometimes" and "kind of"
that it's a constant nagging fear
6. Sit down at Christmas dinners in a dress.
Be aware that you're only making things
harder on yourself.
6. Sit down at Christmas dinners in a suit and tie.
Be aware that you're only making things
harder on yourself.
7. Their insistence that they can't even try
to call you their nephew,
or their grandson,
cause it would be too ******* them
8. My transition is too ******* them
5. I wake up some mornings
willing to do anything I can to switch bodies
with my best friend: a trans woman
who hates her body as much as I hate mine
that's something we have in common.
I'd give anything to have her body,
she'd give anything to have mine
9. Recognise that your family
isn't gonna understand.
10. Deal with it the only way you know how:
every self-destructive tendency
you've clung to all these years
quickly becoming your other best friends
6. Realise that feeling this way
is making things harder on you.
11. Realise that it's okay
to break up with your regrets
and though they'll cling to your shirt
and drop to their knees
and beg beg beg beg for you back
Do not take them back.
12. Realise that you are so much more.
That you... Are valid,
despite everyone who calls you
the name of a person
you don't even recognise anymore
realise that you are valid
despite everyone who says you're not
cause when you think you're not,
when you're pressing yourself into mattresses
and obsessively working out
and holding back tears looking at all the clothes
you wish you could look good in,
that's.... well, that's when you need it most.
0. Let go of the fact that your family
calls you the name of a person you don't recognise anymore
because one day, you're gonna show up for Christmas dinner
and they're not gonna recognise you.
And that's one of the most comforting feelings
in the world.