1
my parents
used hold and rock me
to help me fall asleep
2
3
they say the first poem you
read you will spend your whole
life trying to perfect it.
They read me
“Oh the places you’ll go.”
4
5
the characters in books,
their lives are perfect
they’re perfect
I want perfect.
6
despite what the kids
say, I am not great.
I’ll show you.
7
roses are red
violets are blue
is it really okay to cry
when no one talks to you?
8
9
10
backstreet boys
puberty
poems about the ones
I've never met
11
12
He was perfect.
I couldn’t have been
more wrong.
13
read me beautiful poetry
kiss me under the stars.
I got pushed
down the stairs.
14
I want to look
like the lines
in my poems.
a perfect size,
stunning and
captivating
15
I don’t speak.
Only my poetry knows
I haven’t eaten in days.
16
A man touched me.
I cry myself to sleep.
17
The scars
on my wrists and hips,
I created them
and I’ve
created insidious
poems depicting
my demise
18
I dreamt about death.
razors to the veins,
bullets to the head,
so much I tried myself.
Sweet sleeping pills.
19
I woke up.
20
From the depths.
I am writing to
lift myself up.
21
I was wrong.
death is not beautiful
and neither is the destruction of
your body and soul.
22
there are shifts in
the poems.
there is happiness.
23
this is the reason
why we write.
24
this is my story.
my beautiful life.