Thorns
Dear self
Why
Why when you wake must you feel the need to cover yourself in thorns
You know what this brings to the world
Destruction
Self-hate
Anger
Violence
Yet you persist
When you walk down the stairs in the morning you leave behind a trail of blood
Some fresh
Some old
And the stench lingers
It permeates your clothing, your hair, your life
And you let it
There is no fight in you to tear and claw and dismantle and break
These chains of vines that you enclose yourself with
It is not only you who suffers
Those you pass and love and hate and yearn for
They are torn apart too
Yet you persist
No matter the countless times they break your skin and hurt you
These thorns remain
You tell yourself I will do better and you rip them from you
Only in a week for them to return sharper and more abundant
You begin to lose track of when
When
Where you born in this prison of thorns or is it what you’ve built for yourself
You want better
You cry
Scream
Anguish
Belittle
Yet the thorns persist