A dose of 30 paracetamol
And lithium to help keep sane
You lie in a bed with drips
Vomiting out your pain

The veins on your arm stick out
Blue against dark red scars
There are bags under your eyes
Black like a sky of stars

I hold on to your thin arms
And I hope it doesn't hurt
"Don't hurt yourself again"
But my words are lost in your shirt

You're home sometimes, or not
A long, long stay away
I miss you when you're gone
And you missed my birthday.

The agony was too much
and the memories suffocated
her until she could not breathe.

For two months she found herself
in a hospital, for she thought
seeking Death would be

a better choice. Jagged red
lines smiled at her
cunningly from her own wrists.

The doctors, nurses and her family
kept her far away from
her best friend, a sharp

point dripping in crimson.
She wondered where it was;
if she was going to see

it again. For days, she
slept and wished
she could sleep forever.

But one day she was told
by the doctor
there was nothing more to be

done to keep her from
thinking the bad thoughts,
except to prescribe drugs

to make her either numb
or fine for a while.
So she went back home,

back to the empty spaces,
back to those horrible memories-
that time of the year

she could not forget, no matter how
she tried to push them to
the back of her mind. Then

she found the farewell letter
she had written two months ago,
meaning to say goodbye

and never, ever come back.
She read it and the agony
came back once again.

It was too much and
the memories suffocated her,
until she could not breathe.