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