My mind is like a garden, my thoughts are seeds.

I can grow flowers, or I can grow weeds.

Dwelling in the extremes

The soil does rot

Sprouting insects of darkness

Who bite at the crop

They eat at the grain

Grow glades of pain

Slashing

Cutting

Until one plant remains

A seed so dark

An idea so sweet

Erase the whole garden

Wipe out every leaf

Then sun shoots up

amidst the crying sky

To return me ...

They don’t know me.

No one does.

They see my screen,

not the machine.

I am broken,

yet seem fine.

A storm of feeling

rages inside.

Subside.

Subside.

I cry

and cry—

but the deathly darkness

still survives....

You've been holding on for too long. Your hands are cracked and bloodied while the rope slowly dwindles away, ready to snap. How long can you keep pulling? How long until it breaks? It hurts. The rope burns your skin, as the fibers slowly slide across your palm. You are pulling a mountain. It will never move. But will you? Will you stop this futile battle? You are not alone. They are with you. The...

Where are they? I try to take a deep breath. It shakes as I exhale. Where are they? I don't see them. They said they would come. But they aren't here. They probably went somewhere else. Without me. My fingers twitch as I bring my palm to my chin. They are probably having fun.

But... what if they have too much fun. My head throbs. I bring my hand down and sink my nails into my pant leg, slowly pul...

I am ok.

I am,

ok.

I’m happy,

complete,

replete

with all that I need.

Just because

I watched him fall

deep into the ground—

six feet—

as a teen,

doesn’t mean

I’m not ok....

Silence. Its loudness bangs against my head, beating it over and over again. Why is it all that surrounds me? Why does it follow my every interaction? No one remembers me. No one. I am forgotten—a lost memory to all those I once knew. My parents, siblings, friends—none recognize my face. Just silence. They all slap me with silence.

It’s been a little over a day since the last attempt. I tried to ...

The pungent scent of spoiled milk wafts through the home, emanating from the open refrigerator. I scrunch my nose, gagging, as I plunge my hand deep into its mouth, extracting the week old carton. The cardboard is wet and it immediately mushes in my hand, crumpling to the floor like a dead rat. Milk goes everywhere, pooling around my feet.

"Great," I mutter, watching my shoes slowly turn a greeni...

My smile trembles

A silent sob

Can they see it

Do they see me

My face is pressed against the glass

A world so lively

zooms passed

Slipping away

As I sit in the train

Broken

Sad

In pain

My mask fastened tightly to my face

An outward persona

My saving grace

For if only they knew

What is buried underneath

If only they knew

the horrors that I disguise

I would be burned alive

A witch they would c...

A house too quiet and too still

with kids not running amok.

The hollow silence—

an empty classroom,

As I,

the lone child,

walk aimlessly

through its harrowing rows.

Peace at last,

they say.

Gone so fast,

I was cast

aside,

a broken mast,

in this vast, open place—

passed by in my solitude....

His arms end in plump stubs of fat, an overstuffed pillow cinched shut at the wrists. His skin is pale and perfect, as supple as rising dough. Out of them extends a fan of button-like fingers, like emerging saplings shooting out of the soft dirt. They curl instinctively around anything they find, a corner of a blanket, a rattle, his mother's pinky. ...