i fell off my bike when i was 8 and 

i still have the scars on my knees from

crashing into the pavement

but losing you hurt twice as bad and

left a much bigger wound that kept me 

unable to move for weeks

clouds settled in my lungs and made it

hard to breathe

i always said you were my oxygen

and you always said that you’d never 

get tired of me, but now my bones are

splintering at the thought of you with someone else and 

you’re worried about which shoes look best 

 

i never thought you’d add to my body of scars

but each one you gave me felt like a warm embrace

it just turns out that i was hugging a boa constrictor and he

was cutting off my air supply

each time i struggled, he only

got tighter around my neck

 

that’s not to say that it wasn’t a good love

it was the best i’ve ever had, and that’s why

i’m so scared

you don’t find love that spans continents

and moves mountains twice in a lifetime

but i also know that you can’t water dead plants

so i will wrap my body up in my covers to

hold myself together and try not to 

take it to heart when my mom yells at me

for sleeping too much

because i know from eating concrete that

only time closes nasty wounds

i wish you nothing but happiness and that my

claw marks left at least a tiny scar on you

because God knows i held on to you 

as long as i could 

 

- scars (SJL)