I hurt;
I hurt in ways that I cannot say aloud for fear it will consume the air in the room;
I hurt with a hundred little cuts that pull open whenever I try to move within this ‘skin’;
I hurt when I smile as the sheer falsity of it renders it void;
I hurt when people claim they hurt but in reality know nothing of real pain;
I hurt…

I ache;
I ache for a time when the pain wasn’t real;
I ache for respite and for a light at the end of a tunnel;
I ache with muscles that long to be used but are instead withered to naught;
I ache to smile for a reason and not for someone else’s;
I ache…

I hurt;
I hurt when I am not with you...
I ache;
I ache when you are not in my flesh…

And now I can smile…thinking of you…my release...
the pain begins to recede…