Overflowing//Hollow

Tiny half-moon cuts march across her palms

angry, demanding attention.

You never noticed the places where nails bit skin,

trailing fiery tears down her tender arms.

She welcomes the distraction though. In the pain, she finds clarity.

As the tears dry and blood crusts over,

frustrated helplessness explodes from her purple-blue knuckles again.

Spiderweb cracks in drywall, and a fractured soul to match.

The perfect student, perfect daughter to the outside world

is never perfect enough.

You never noticed the too-wide smiles she has forced,

or the pleas for help she's had to smother.

Her whispers of protest, of "I am not okay"

are drowned beneath your whirlwind screams

swallowed whole without a second- or even a first- thought.

Exhausted, her fragile voice fades back to black,

and all she tasted is ash.

The perfect student, perfect daughter to the outside world

is perfectly broken.

Tiny half-moons spiral everywhere now, overlapping

Competing for space among the scar tissue and bruised porcelain.

Another hollow impression of a smile forms on her lips,

are you happy now?