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Shawn Oen Apr 21
Hands That Wait

You carry weight with silent pride,
A storm you never let outside.
I see it press against your spine,
But every offer, you decline.

“I’m fine,” you say, with furrowed brow,
As if that’s all you will allow.
You wear the world like armor tight,
Then wonder why you lose the fight.

I reach for you with open hands,
But you’ve built walls from shifting sands.
I see you drown and will not swim,
Afraid that help admits you’re dim.

But strength is not a solo act,
It’s in the pause, the soft impact
Of letting someone in the dark
Hold even just the smallest part.

You mow the grass, the dog, the day—
But not the cracks that won’t obey.
And I can’t fix what you won’t share,
Can’t love the weight if you’re not there.

I’m here, still here, with hands outstretched,
My care not soft, not vague, not fetched.
But love can’t break through what you cage—
And silence slowly turns to rage.

So tell me where the hurt begins.
Let me help you hold the pins.
We lose the fight when we don’t see—
That even strong hearts bend to breathe.

© 2025 Shawn Oen. All rights reserved.
Raven Apr 17
I was told
Time and time again
That theres no more reason to be scared
I can sleep in peace

But time and time again
Everyone who ever said
Those words to me
Got proved wrong
Along with me

So now I lay here and wish to do
Everything to flee
The capture of sleep
April/17/2025
Mariah Apr 15
Can't you see me?
Can't you see?
How its supposed to be
You had to teach me

A burdensome chore
You chose to ignore
So you left me alone
Wondering why I did so on my own

Now I know nothing
I'm always running
Under the pressure
I'm crumbling

The unformed person
Hiding behind the curtain
Ashamed of being the burden

Now you can't see-
but when you think of me
I'm gone and you're still  
Hating me  

How I'm ought to be
It isn't clear to me
And I'm sure you'd happily agree
I am lost at sea

You were so headstrong
About knowing all along
I was unworthy and ugly, loud and wrong
Now I suffer
Nowhere to belong


You can no longer tell me to go
This is my home
Piece by piece, blood and bone
I built it on my own  

You know of my unbearable pain
Trying to live life your way
And you know I couldn't stay
When you were the one sending me away

I don't want to grow old
With my life feeling cold
All thrown away
Feeling myself decay

Its not my responsibility
Your incivility
Never a child to you,
But a void of hostility

Your high horse far away from me
And I know,
that even though
I can't see you looking down
It is a certainty

Creative were your reasons
To deny the diseases
That plagued our house of stalled seasons
So look away, so you don't need to believe in
The winter that we lived in

Deny, deny, deny
The distance between you and I
Came from you, and your willingness to
Misidentify
"This child is not mine,
It Chooses to defy,
There is Rot inside."
And I can never be satisfied
With your answers when I ask why

"You, you, you-
You chose to do-
Everything bad that happened to you."

How could I
When I was the child in knots
And you were the tie

If I am a Bad Egg-
and I am Rotten -
Then you were the Broken,
Beaten Down fridge that I was in
For my mother.
I never wished it of you, but I will die someday, just like you want me to.
And maybe then, you could finally be proud.
Or at least, you could finally stop haunting me.
the night I tried to end it all
replays in my head
every single **** day
it tortures me
makes me relive it
I don't want to remember that night
the pounding heart
and the heart ceasing beating
the puke
the shaking and trembling
the hyperventilating
and the not breathing
I relive it everyday
I just wish it would leave me alone
I don't want to remember the misery
the dying
the pain on my parent's faces
it terrifies me when I think about that night
Alice Wilde Apr 12
I used to think I was an anxious child.

Now, I realize my parents
Could never accept my love.
EliMay Apr 9
It didn't take long.
From one conversation.
From one call.
To say this three word prayer.

Please don't go.

Please don't go
When the light is out
And the sirens call.

Please don't go
As shots are fired
And the pressure to fall
Is too much

Please don't go
When your demons call
And memories flash

From friend to friend
Sister to Brother
Wife to Husband.

As these terrifying words
Cross my lips
Just listen to my
Three word prayer.

Please don't go.
For my military buddies. Those who lost. Those willing to go the distance. And those who struggle with the return.

Please don't go my friends
Raven Apr 9
Im a child
Laying on my closet floor
Curled up and begging to be loved
Crying out for a mom
But not the one that I had

I'm a child
Laying on the kitchen floor
Crying
And getting ignored

I'm a child
Begging for a loving touch
A warm hug
A few kind words
As I curl up and cry myself to sleep
Right there on the floor

Whenever I'm a child again
All I wish to do is be on the floor
And maybe bury underneath
Pulling the floor up and over me

When I was a child I shoved myself
In any possible small space that I could secure
For if it was small enough maybe it could hold me
And keep me safe
Like nobody else had before

I'm a child
Laying on the floor
I am no longer
Here

You make me a child again
Begging for love
Begging for more
April/9/2025
Alice Wilde Apr 8
I was torn from my slumber
Like moss from a stump
By little kid fingers.

Forcibly ****** back into a reality
I did not want to live.

Because in that reality
My family becomes
Monsters.

And I become a slot machine.
maxx Apr 5
love
shouldn’t ignore no
& rewrite your skin
without permission.

i was 14
& still learning
how to say
yes
to myself.

i didn’t know
how to say no
with a body
that wasn’t even
mine yet.

backseat.
backdoor.
back then.

i bled
& said nothing.

but now—
i speak.

i am not
what he did to me.
i am what i chose
after.
my ptsd has been showing its colors recently. i was 14, he was 17. coercion is not consent.
waking up in a haze,
wondering what day it is.

nights blurring into the next,
trying to pull myself together.

lost, confused, wondering:
what the hell is wrong with me?

is this just a phase?
is this post-traumatic response
or recovery?

because everything seems
to go too fast, or
way too slow,

and i think
i'm gonna breakdown.

stupid toxic tendencies,
i keep trying every day,
and it's oh-so exhausting.

imagine an enemy,
only you can see—

man vs. self,
back to the basics
of healing and discovery.

fighting the bad thoughts,
just to get another day.

so tired and over it,
i gotta claw my way out,

or i'll never truly be set free.
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