"Two Words"

Blood bath. Suicide.
Reading the words in lines,
The ones written in red.
Scars that told your story.

Inch by inch,
Your skin was demolished.
All you wanted was to
Reflect what you saw....
On the inside.

No one ever cared,
Or so it seemed to you.
You were dying.
The faces around you blurred.
And you were lost...

Lost in a darkness so deep
That hope could not dispel
It's presence in your heart.
Not the poison in your veins.

Alone. Tired. Broken.
Pieces scattered around the memory
Of you.
Making up the lines of your face
The brutality of your addiction
The pain in your eyes
And the slivers of your dreams.

Tough skin, rough heart.
It was how you projected.
An outer-shell of falsehoods
Created to protect you.

Those walls of protection
Must have changed.
Into a prison and a torture chamber.
No screaming could be heard.
No tears were ever seen
But in your eyes....

Trust me, if you were here
I'd tell you how I know.
Know the pain.
Know the loneliness.
Know the shame, guilt, and....
Hopelessness.

I know the fear.
I know the hate of self.
The anger, fatigue, and...
Hiding.
Always faking.

I know the feeling
Of trying to stay two steps ahead
And falling four steps behind.
Of climbing to the top of the mountain
To fall off of the cliff.
Again and again and again....

"Blood bath," you said.
Just two words,
But they mean all the difference to me.

To someone you saved once.
Someone like me.

You were someone like me....