Needles
They looke like needles
That someone decided to slip just beneath the surface of your skin
Wherever they thought they might fit
They look like they hurt
Like you had real reason to carve each one
Against your dark skin, they're white like ash
There is another one, a newer pink one
Right above the paper-like crease your elbow makes on your inner arm
You said
That this one came from a mishap with a car door
I try to convince myself
That because this one is rounded and thick
It must be true
So far I haven't been successful
I know that I'm probably being stupid
That not every story has to have a heart break
That if I could just summon up the courage to ask
You'd tell me
Exactly where the needles came from
But I just can't
You were not born a liar
A nd in the back of my mind there still lies a whisper
Saying that you slit those needles there
That you liked the way they looked
Before you were stable enough to know any better
And even when I smother whisper like a fire that didn't know how to burn
I still don't want you to make the lie true
Because
Right now, you're my proof
That I or anyone else for that matter
Can walk through the wild fires life sets
And dodge most of the flames
Escape the third degree burns
Right now, you're my proof
That I can make it through high school
Without knowing the taste of cocaine
Or the feeling of steel slicing flesh
And still meet the dipkoma at the end of the tunnel
Right now, you're one of the last people I have that can prove
That in this generation
There doesn't have to be a moment
When you give up