sometimes i remember the way it felt when i thought you didn’t want me anymore and it breaks me up inside all over again. i still feel it during the most unexpected times, you know. it hits me like a goddamn bus, and i have to remind myself that yes, i AM important to you. that yes, you do want me around.
i know when you met me all i did was hurt. i still hurt. i’m sorry about that, i wish i could change it. i wish i could erase who i am (how this illness eats away at my heart) or what has been done to me–so i could become a clean slate for you.
at times i wake up in the middle of the night convinced that i am searingly alone. the pain burns in my chest, the heat of it reducing me to ash. i wake up and i panic,
i panic
i panic
i panic
i wake up and i feel like the world has ended, it has collapsed down around me and all that’s left is me laying here in the dark. i can feel my heartbeat in my throat, my heartbeat in my throat.
i wish i could become someone unafraid. someone who doesn’t choke on fear and vibrates with tension at the slightest thing, a voice raised or sullen silence, a too-quick movement. finding reasons to worry when nothing is wrong, taking silence for disinterest and disinterest for disdain.
oh god, i wish i could become someone who is whole and unbroken.
not damaged goods. not hauling trauma around like a ball and chain, or a worn suitcase filled with little reminders that yes, i am still a person because look here, this is the copy of fried green tomatoes you gave me that i read through the night, and here is that flower crown i always wear when i need to feel your strength.
here is a stack of letters i began writing when we were eighteen and now it takes an entire box to carry them around, and did you ever see my love growing beyond this worn little suitcase? i sure didn’t. sometimes i worry it’s not even real because it’s so much bigger than anything i’ve ever experienced.
and do you see these shiny rocks? this boy loves glittery things; he keeps his treasures in old dog eared paperbacks and well-loved stuffed animals with drooping ears, missing eyes and sweet smiles. in little pouches full of coins from twenty different countries and his grandfather’s pressed handkerchiefs.
my ma always said ‘well-loved’ is a better word than ragged, it made things sound okay for a little while (even through the sound of yelling and cracked plates smashing into walls). and my hands are shaking, my hands are shaking, my hands
my well loved hands; my heart
shaking.
BPD, or: Mother, I may be ragged
but sometimes I am not sure I’m well loved at all. (via poeticsuggestion)