This is an issue which isn’t spoken of enough. Awful, manipulative people roam this earth and poison the minds of many. Humanity often does not want to hear the other side of a story, and choose to instead blindly believe the slanderer. This brings no justice to the truth that was twisted, or to the victim who bears the damage. In many cases, the victim is forced to part with money and other things that are highly important to them. Why must slanderers feel so secure within their own lies, and why must the world deprive the victim of a voice?

a distinct feature
in my appearance
would be
the bags under my eyes;

i remember staying up
until my bones quiver
under the bewitching spells
of the moon’s forgotten raving sonatas,
enticing enough to cradle
an iota of dejected sentiments
from centuries and centuries ago.

i remember looking up
at the night sky
until my eyes flicker from dust to ashes,
burning the crevices of every wall i built,
graveyards broken down
to match the unmatched
bleakness of the ignominious sorrow
peeking out of the corner of your soles.

i remember laying down,
not once had silence became overbearing
that i could hear the faintest brush
of a weightless feather falling
from a tainted nest,
aching to meet its pernicious lover.

i remember closing my eyes,
shifting everything elsewhere;
still, i dread the feeling of compunction
emerging deep from
the landmines of mistakes
that i had claimed as my home
and my shelter.

but this, i could never forget:
i remember
being envious of you;
how you do not
lay awake at night,
wondering if things
could have been better.

If you were to ask me
How I would describe myself
With two words
That's what I'd say