I have blood drying in the pit of my throat
from all the words I ache to say yet swallow down
and black-bitten lips from holding back sobs as the thoughts scratched on their way to the boiling point

There's annoyance in their gazes
The contempt burns holes in my skin
My hands are bleeding from the places where my fingernails ripped them apart and held me together

I exist in the wrong place
Shouts more like slaps
But the sting feels okay
More comfort found in the pain they inflict
Than in the sighed rolled eyed apologies that follow