Trigger Warning: This poem contains minimal swearing. For those who aren’t the biggest fans of curses, proceed with caution. Also, attached to this poem is my recitation on this piece slam style, so if you’re into that, give it a listen. C:

~*~*~*~

you write tacky tales of those depressing days where the antidepressants are never enough on my
scarred skin, happy to depart with your sorrows and dump all this bullshit onto
somebody else's canvas where the scribbles are wilder and the lines are wider and
everything is a foreign new land to you, so please
write away.

i know you are excited to have made nests in strangers' hearts but who are you
to claim land and go beyond borders and begin marking territory in places i
don't remember inviting you to or in other words, do not cramp my skin with
too many stories, too many suicide threats, too many emotions, too many financial debts;
do not abuse this power you have above me because i am too nice and i will let you
write all that anger and rage and sadness bottled up anyway but do know that
tattoos are permanent.

the more you write and attempt to erase, the thinner those layers grow and
the more closer i become to vanishing, especially when your antics mirror those of
a novelist and i am a flimsy sheet of paper; do not squeeze down all your troubles onto
i, the friend you stumbled writing thoughts on the train last week and
may i repeat? LAST WEEK, i broke off all ties with a long-time friend and
who are you to just so easily suppose that you can so easily fill in that hole and
take on his position?

one day, you will see,
this paper body consumed by flames, the anger of two separate souls no longer
bearable for my paper mind, my worded paper skin reduced to cinders of
memories of you and i and him and i and you and her and why the fuck
should i even give a fuck about you and her when these paper lungs finally give in and burn and die?

so, i beg you.
i beg you,
stressed you may be, do not assume that others are not,
do not assume that their burdens aren't as heavy as yours,
do not assume skins as papers, do not write everything down because
we can only take so much stressed pieces of writing before
we finally shred into
small
paper
heartbreaks.