Kinsey Peterson

Wear Your Scars On Your Sleeves

Most people wear their heart on their sleeve

I wear the sleeves to hide the heart

To hide the scars

To hide the hurt

 

I’m told cover the red in bandages

But I paint across my skin in lines and curves

A sharp and simple art

If painful

 

My mother told me that I was loved

My father that i am worthless

My lover that i am empty

My sister that I am home

 

The drinking of hot coffee scalds my throat

But makes the next swallow

All the more bearable

The taste is always forgotten

 

The most simple word in the dictionary is “I”

A single letter

A single line

Yet “I” have no recollection of who that is

 

Instead of skin I am cast in bone

Something brittle

Breakable

A wall between the world and the softness inside me

 

Most people wear their heart on their sleeve

I wear the sleeves to hide the heart

To hide the scars

To hide the hurt