i was four
and the waves came to swallow my sandcastle and
my father told me that i coudln't save everything
and i cried
i was seven when i first saw a stranger bleed. her
scraped knee
wept down her leg. i remember they pushed me to the
side
so they could help her and i just stood there
and stared
i was fifteen the first time someone finally
asked about the thin red lines and i told them it was
my cat and they nodded and
forgot about it.
i am twenty and trying to save every person
who comes through my life because i was so bad
for so long and it marked me in ways i am still
discovering
but you can't help everybody, i know that too
well
because despite all my pretending otherwise, i
couldn't even
save myself.
--- r.i.d
