An influencer is asking girls who was the first guy who told her she was pretty.

Most say and ex, or even a little kid.

But then, he stops the last girl.

He’s heard the same answers over and over

And doesn’t expect anything different

At first, he’s right

“Does my dad count?” She asks shyly

“No, someone else,”

“Oh”

“Well”

“I don’t know if anyone has ever told me that”

He ...

“Sticks and stones may break my bones,

But words will never hurt me.”

Huh.

Well,

Sticks and stones have never broken my bones

But words, how they have hurt me

They cut deep into my heart

Sharper than any knife

But more hurtful still

Are words that hide

They stay on the top of your tounge

But I can see them

In your eyes they scream at me

And let me tell you

That hurts

Mor...

They heard crying from the closet

What could it be?

They opened the door

Expecting to see a stranger

A new face in need of help

What they saw instead was a dear friend

The friend that had held each of them

But never asked for anything in return

Her fingers dripped blood

As the knife clattered to the ground

She had always been so strong

How could she have been

Hurting this bad

They rushed ar...

It hurts so much

My heart trying to feel

But the timing is wrong

Im to busy to break down

I feel it coming

I feel my mask beginning to slip

I excuse myself to the bathroom

And give myself one minute to hurt

And then I get up

I fix my face

Like nothing happened

Because if the goofy, quiet, Im fine friend breaks

Would they even recognize the real me?...

I don’t want to die

Not because I want to live

But because I know

How much easier it would be to follow me

For those I know are already struggling

But some nights I wonder

Would they even notice

If one day I wasn’t there

Would they cry?

Would anything change at all?

But even if I wasn’t there still invisible

I can’t take the chance

That one might follow me

That I would hurt som...

Little things; a scrap of paper, a beat up old pen, a small faded notebook, a tarnished and worn ring, and a creased folded up photograph. All tucked up together in an inner jacket pocket.

The notebook and the pen were like an old couple, useless without each other. The notebook book was full of ideas and poems. Dreams and memories covered page after page in small neat handwriting. It was a lit...

Your love is like an arrow,

laced with poison

My heart a sparrow,

scared to let you in

The miss so narrow,

I could hear what might have been

And for a moment I wonder

Could it have been worth it?

Might our love have been thunder

Not lightning that bit?

But now our lives a sunder

Two puzzles that didn’t fit....

All I wish for, is so close

Behind closed eyelids I have everything I could imagine

But it’s not quite right

Because even in my dreams

Can I have everything I want

Without giving up things I need...

I survived!

How surprising

Here I was thinking it was over

When it was actually just another day

Another way to pay

Bustling from one place to the next

Not a moment to breathe

Information force-fed down my throat

Voice spent until I could no longer croak a note

I made it through another day!

Twisting, whirling, bruised and broken

But alive!

I was attacked on all sides

Surrounded so there was n...

How can I write now?

You tell me that’s too vivid

This scene is too morbid

These characters are too dark

“You’re a fantasy writer, your characters don’t have to be THAT realistic”

But they do

My goal in writing is to touch a readers heart

And a perfect life isnt going to do that

We need characters who are just as broken as us

We need stories that are just as tired as ours

So I write the stor...