We were reading the inferno in class today
The second ring of the seventh circle
She let out a gasp
I almost didn't hear it, could have mistaken it for a breath if my eyes hadn't glanced in her direction
Witnessed her mouth agape, her eyes wide with shock and horror as she read the description of the woods of suicide
She closed it quickly, her mouth, I mean
I took her hand and squeezed it, but I had to let go
Her mouth remained closed but her eyes flashed with pain when the people who "defiled" themselves were torn apart by the ravenous dogs
I knew what was hiding under her jeans on her upper thighs
I knew it was the child of her mind tearing itself apart
It's funny
Funny, how those cuts on her legs
Hurt me more than pain should be allowed to exist in anything
Funny, how pain we feel for those we love is unmeasurably larger than the pain we feel for ourselves
Funny.

Look at how it glistens in the morning light
It was just blown and now takes off in flight.
It catches the breezes and goes where it pleases
But sadly won't last too long
The bubble you blew
Blew your heart into
Is now
Forever
Gone

She is the sky;
Not just one clear and blue, vibrant as the land beneath it on a summer day,
But also dark, cloudy, powerful and brooding when she is grey
Blue and clear is pretty, and one smiles for it's company when it shows it's face
But the beauty of a tempest is unmatched, as it cries on the earth below in all its grace
The sky gives and takes, changes consistently between its night and day

As does she, as do we all, love, steal, hurt, change.
But she deserves my love and I will never withhold because I love her through her flaws, you through your flaws.

Can I tell you a secret?


She is me. And you. My English teacher. Humanity.

Flaws are human, and human is flawed. I love her.