it comes in waves of loss and longing - the bitterest taste of realizing I will always be this way. I write letters of apology to the ones I love, because I will always be this way. letting go is a battle of blood and arms, and god sometimes it takes years. they still don't see my scars when I think about all that I've lost and all I've had to let go, and the graveyards of all those things I was so desperate for but never quite got to hold on to. when I lay alone, in my quietest moments, all I can seem to grab onto are barbed wire thoughts and I know it shouldn't be like this. I am a whole girl, I worked so hard to put myself together, but it still feels sometimes like I put myself back together with tape and I feel those pieces of me starting to drift apart again and I wonder if I'll ever actually be whole, if I'll ever see the version of myself with the golden veins of glue that hold me together - she was broken, but she still fills. and I'm sorry I can't help but fall apart. these days it happens less and less, but god I gave away so much of myself and I got back so little that it's like starting over and over and over again, and I'm trying so hard. I am, please believe me: I am trying to be whole for all of you, because you've loved me so kindly and thoughtfully and I want to be whole for the sake of us all. I don't want to be the ******* the bathroom floor falling apart at three in the morning. I hate her, I hate that she still lives in me, I hate that she still thinks of the boy that broke us so uttery and completely that he stains everything I continue to touch. I hate that I have something here in my hands so wonderful and new and all I can think about is how soon this, too, will ******* break. I don't want to live this life looking around every corner, waiting for my next ruin. let me live, let me be whole, let me that broken girl who still shines in golden puzzle pieces because *******, she is whole.