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It's exhausting...

Being two people at once.


The person who holds love at her fingertips

who lives each day for a better tomorrow

who believes, with her entire heart

that people are good and strong, and beautiful


And the person unable to feel it.

Who believes that tomorrow will never come

That can't see past all the evil,

and the death,

and the broken.


I'm the person who lives and breathes

the words on a page;

who longs to meet these characters

my brain conjured up.

The ones who hold me

until I feel safe...


But I'm also the person terrified

of getting them wrong.

Of their flaws, of their desires.

I'm terrified that they're a reflection of me,

and I'm nowhere near perfect.

That underneath their safety and security

they hold my evil,

the evil even I don't know I own.


I'm terrified of being wrong.

Of lighting a candle at both ends

and using each to start a fire;

one which is sure to engulf me

piece by piece

until I'm nothing more than a burn

and a bit of wax, a braided string.


What if I'm a stain

on the fabric of our earth.

On the hands of my family,

my friends.


I'm trying to hold myself together,

I am.

I've lit the candle.

I'm taking deep breaths.

It's balancing, holding.


Yet one tilt is all it'll take,

a sad drip of wax,

to come crashing right down.

And I'll be sitting under it when it does.

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