All that I am—this hate reflected inward;
An echo of guilt wrapped in disdain
Lost to the inevitability of passing time
Yet still it lives

All that I know—this sadness you see;
I don't let you close though I should
A life gone in an instant leaving nothing behind
But this crumbling façade

All that I feel—this vestigial regret; no, fear;
Ties with which to bind me to this life;
To keep me tethered to this world
Yet still ethereally

All that we project—the unwarranted attacks;
The bridges I've burned, rebuilt, and burned again
All to feel something other than sorrow
Meant for no one

All that I see—the flames around me; burning;
This reflection of what's beyond this calm exterior
The love and hate; The love of hate; The hate of love;
The gyre beneath the surface

All of this turmoil—this undeserved turbulence;
The love I thought to give, but was mistaken
The hate I sought to hide, but was misappropriated
Is all I see

And all I see is failure on my part; of my control;
Of my desires hidden with lock and key;
And of searing anger unconstrained
Eternity in vain

Lost and found but never returned;
Mended and duct taped together--
Yet still riven deep within;
Sundered eternally; dust on no wind

Wind to bring the mightiest oaks to topple;
Zephyrs of times foretold--
Times of catharsis and of calm;
Catatonic like this still air

Air to breathe and to suffocate;
Drowning in an endless sky--
Rain, but to only turn grass to mud;
Prairie to swamp; earth to dust

Dust upon a picture frame;
Glass shattered but still whole--
An allegory for a light to shine bright;
Only to burn out in a cold eternal night

Night so frigid it cuts straight to the bone;
Brittle like a heart frozen over--
Arteries clogged with slush;
Slowing to a snail's pace; creeping

Creeping into my soul like the darkness;
Black as night and ichor; as a fractured mind--
One lost to time; fading as all does
Like petrichor on a steady wind

Wind gentle as a loving embrace;
Vicious like a stab in the back--
Or gruesome as one to the throat;
Cutting deep to spill the blood

Blood of life and of death;
Signalling the end of one's run--
The end of life and beginning of eternity;
Aeons to suffer through endlessly

Endlessly, eternally, cyclically;
Ebb and flow in the most macabre of senses--
Leaving nothing to chance;
For chance is an illusion of fate

Fate brings me here tonight;
Carries me through ups and downs--
Soaring heights, but still I fall;
Too close to the sun, perhaps

Perhaps this is not the end;
Almost certainly it won't be--
The cycle is not to be interrupted;
Though fate may not show its hand

Hand me a knife to cut these bonds;
Sever the sutures that hold this shattered soul--
Let it be a message to the gods;
I make my own path, I am my own fate--

Broken, though not beyond repair
The shards we are—
Those who chose to share
Who they are

"In time—"
I cut myself off, recalling
Yet another fragment—
Another moment given light to shine

They were me— are me
It's hard to explain sometimes—
Hard to comprehend
The Shards

Memory is fickle—
Fleeting and ephemeral
Like a warm spring breeze
Lost in eternity with us

Us— the Shards; Fragments
Pieces of a whole— Me
Fragments of a Shattered Mind
Scarred and broken, but mended

Mended as I am though
I still bear those scars
And the Shards who pierced the mind
Pierced the soul

With mirrored clarity I see them
I see myself— One in the same
With clinical precision they cut
Fragmenting me— Us...

"In time," I would tell myself—
These were times of fear;
Self-introspection; grand unknowns

"For in these times it is not pain
Nor fright or apprehension
Nor desire—"

I would not have known
Nor do I now—
What I may desire or desire herself;

She is a symbol of beauty;
Elegance, grace, harmony
Peace and love—

I know—who wouldn't want that?
I wasn't always how I am—nay
Perceive myself to be

My story is one of heartbreak;
It is pain and suffering;
Depression and loss

Though details show not
Any apparent distress;
Nor loss; nor pain—

But nonetheless scarred I am;
Stabbed more times
Than one could imagine

Yet still I persevere;
I survive, and I thrive;
And I live another day