I live in perpetual circumstances of fear, guided by the palpitation in my heart and the heaviness of my breath
It’s as if the whole world exists around me and within me, as if I am separate and yet anxiously connected
I wish I could call it beautiful

there is so much beauty in the world, yet I hold hands with the ugly
I am held by the tentative and cradled by the impermanent
my mind is a filing cabinet of negative possibilities and tragic happenings,
tucked away in the abyss

there is so much to see and yet my sight is clouded
so much to learn and yet my judgment is tainted
it’s like I am walking with fractures, and no one can see the casts wrapped around my ankles

all I want is to feel like my limbs are healing themselves, my heart is relearning how to pulse love through my veins, and my lungs are slowly expelling the toxins that have been making it so hard to breathe

but all I feel is my body rejecting health,
choosing to remain uncured
the pain magnifies, my senses weaken
and all that keeps me connected with those around me
is a force that presents myself to the world in such a way that the bruises painted on my skin
appear as a testament to the  journey I went through to smile again when indeed I am still being beaten

auras swirling, igniting like a chemical reaction
our bodies fill the entire room, yet they stand so far apart
our eyes lock, and there is nothing but the potent sense of remembrance
I almost see myself behind the coppery hues

feeling your skin against mine reminds me of flowing water, sending waves over each other’s  inner essence
I long to get closer, to know if it was ever really me that I saw behind your eyes
or if you’ve been choosing to keep your distance because of the way mine stare back at you

on an ordinary day,
i would gaze into the mirror and watch sunlight radiate from my skin's inner essence
all the little ridges and curves kissing my spine seemed to have transcended from the stars themselves
and every scar seemed to display my life’s most earth-shattering moments,
moments so powerful that they broke through the rooted filaments of my flesh
i remembered what i have been through and have an overwhelming sense of my own inherent magic.
  
every day i've ever had that was like this one, you’d see me holding my head up high, with my shoulders ***** and my lungs full of the purest laughter
you'd think of me as the walking embodiment of strength..

and I loved those days, to my core.

but today,

i seem to be looking at a mangled body
bludgeoned by passersby that manipulated their way past the sunlight and the stardust
i see strangers kicking through the door to my infinite touch

and I fear that the sun-kissed glow of strength that my skin habitually lathers itself in, just masks the battered body of a woman whom wishes that she were strong enough to let her scars heal before letting someone else trace over them with blades

there is so much shame in my entanglement with you. there is shame in how quickly my ears perk up at your lukewarm remarks. shame in the way i incessantly trace back steps i took to heal myself from your initial scrutiny. shame in the way i bleed for you, whilst you pretend not to notice.
my mind is scattered with hundreds of differing perspectives, flooding my thoughts with plans of escaping you, while still keeping my pride. I refuse to acknowledge how i give you the softness that i need to be giving myself. i think i do this all because you aren't available to receive love from another human being. my ego likes to think your indifference is an attack at my self-worth, but I've seen my mangled toes, and i know the injuries are a direct result of walking down my own unique path of self-sabotage. the pain i seek from you  validates the self-hate i hold in my heart. i want to think that your presence in my life is a wake up call, making it abundantly clear the mileage of self-love i need to run before i can ever accept what i deserve. and i deserve way better than you, i know that. i really do. but at the same time, waiting for you to put in the work towards being what i deserve, is something i feel i could wait for forever.

the state of mind you trapped me in when you locked me inside my own body, confining me to perceive the natural motions of life as if I’m falling from a twenty-story building and perpetually climbing back up the stairs

I have fallen on this same pavement so many times before that I can mutter every name of its  frequent passerby’s, i can mentally trace every skid-mark, every link to your DNA from your musky scent to your bristled hair follicles

How you’ve managed to follow me everywhere I go though I haven’t laid eyes on you in two years,
how those around me sigh with hopeless exhaust when they countlessly attempt to rescue me from another inevitable fall onto the cold concrete,
How you breathe fresh air that holds your feet up from the ground, saving you the trouble of having to empathize with Mother Earth’s raw flesh beneath  you

Yet, I am still heaving through corrupted lungs, still swelling the epithelial tissue lining my throat,
still expectorating old memories just to swallow them again and again, each time forcing me to upchuck ****** acid from a place inside of me that implies no medical explanation

I have become so sick and fractured that i can no longer see,
I cannot hear, I cannot speak
But somehow when I touch, all of my delusional senses return as a shadowy figure that resembles the monster of whom I fear most

My vision funnels in, and out
until I feel nothing but the same cold pavement cushioning my bones like a disjunct lullaby

And as my mind melts into a dissociative puddle of nothingness,
I plant my feet on Mother Earth’s raw flesh, and her magnetic waves of energy wrap around my nimble toes, bringing me back to the staircase upward

sometimes I wish I wasn’t cursed with this unquenchable thirst for freedom,
I wish I could lye faithful to a moment rather than daydreaming about what it is next my heart and lungs will sink themselves into, without ever really acknowledging their incessant urges for a steady pulse

There are very few moments I’ve held onto and allowed every element to melt into my being,
as if soluble with breathing skin

I wonder which moments are easier to dissolve in,
which burn and which sting
Which submerge you in feeling, in an everlasting ocean of converging electromagnetic fields

And which seem to be happening in another dimension,
one other than of life,
one in which stagnates and inaudibly negates the concept of time,  
as if it passes right through,
these moments, i know all too well
and yet, its as if I don’t really know them at all

hot blood, red cheeks, burnt lips, and smoke incapacitating my lungs, i heave through the fire in my home
clouded judgement, feelings of hopelessness, i run through my home to find a place where i can feel safe to open my eyes
a place where my lungs are free to experience breath without tentative hesitance, where my senses are in allignment
i search for hydration, for a holistic cleansing of the soul, for a second chance to reclaim this home i have been so careless in
when i finally see myself
my sense of sight funnels in and out
has my skin always looked like this?
who let me destroy my home?
there is nothing to put out the fire
my skin revolts against my bone as my pulse laryngeally stabs me in protest of my reluctance to acknowledge the pain
i am ready to give into the flames, to be a soul of light
to transcend the blazing in my heart, in my veins, in my brainwaves, to go through this life, with open, kindled eyes, a fiery spirit
lungs of feathers
making it obvious that i have scars,
because every aspect of my being,
burns.