Her Name Was Kate 

There was this girl, her name was Kate 

She was not like any of the others; she was more like me 

Sad, lost, happy, afraid  

But there were secrets about Kate that I didn’t know  

She came up to me one day and pulled back my sleeves 

Her eyes tracing the jagged lines of hurt, pain and stupidity on my flesh  

She said words I’d never forget, 

“You think it’s killing you, but it’s actually making you stronger”  

 

I just need something, someone I told Kate days later  

I needed hope 

I needed assurance 

I needed to know that when I fell, there was someone there to help me up 

I needed to know that someone somewhere had hope for me  

She smiled, “I do” she said 

What I didn’t realize was that Kate needed it too 

 

She cried a lot  

She was sad a lot  

She fooled the crowd with biggest smile on her face 

And the hurt she hid from the world  

I knew Kate wanted to let it out even when she thought she didn’t 

 

“I want you to be happy,” I told her everyday like she told me 

She would always smile a broken smile 

She knew and I knew that her happiness wasn’t the only thing hanging by a thread  

 

“It’ll all get better one day” 

Those are the words she said a week before it happened, 

“One day the pain will subside and I’ll be in peace” 

 

I should have saw the signs 

 

Kate never got better 

I should have helped her, I should have saved her like she saved me 

 

I remembered the day we sat by the river on the rainy Thursday just before, 

She looked up at the sky, “If a car was coming and I was in the road, I wouldn’t move” 

She’d stay right where she was and let the car hit her  

And still I never thought… 

 

Kate helped me  

Because of her I had a new reason to live  

To try harder, to fight 

On the last day this broken girl spent on earth, she gave me her broken smile 

And put her palms against mine 

She said words I’d never forget 

“Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we already touched”, 

 

There was the girl, her name was Kate  

She was not like any of the others 

She was sad, she was hurt, and she was in pain  

But she still smiled