I Bruise Easily

I guess my soul is an

Inner black eye.

My heart’s got tear tracks from the

Last time I cried.

I never got the whole soft and strong thing,

What’s tough can sometimes fall.

I’ve learned how to free fall but there’s

No cushion under my tightrope.

Anyone close can

Love you or leave you.

Anyone close can

Heal you or hurt you.

I’ve tried to make

Some great leaps of faith

And I can match blow for blow.

But sometimes I wish this

Wasn’t a race

Or a sold-out circus show.

I’ve tried all the

Masks and I’ve

Wiped all my tears

But somehow you can’t

Always forget

Your eighth grade fears.

They’ve left out the ‘gentle’

Just left me with ‘men’.

I don’t like how it started

And I don’t know how this ends.

I wish upon shooting stars

And rainbows

And the sad glowing orb

Of Mother Moon.

Call me crazy,

Because I concur;

I am the proof that it

Doesn’t work.

Do I ever cross your mind?

Do you ever think about the maybes?

I think it’s just me but

Sometimes it’s nice thinking of

Impossibilities.

Its foreign territory;

When I say ‘I love’,

I’m sorry,

I know I’m at the bottom

Screaming up.

But one day when we’re on

Equal ground,

I’ll take your hand and

You’ll make a bow.

And you’ll try and remember

That I bruise easily.

And maybe you’ll try

Not to hurt me.

Until then I’ll

Read my storybooks,

And try to synthesise

What you can’t sympathise.

Are you human?

Are you a person?

Am I not worth it?

Are you so perfect?

I’ll fight with you or

Against you

There.

Now you know. 

That I bruise easily.

Inspired by 'I Bruise Easily' by Natasha Bedingfield