Sharp points
Too quiet to hear
Pinpricks and paper trails
Words scratched out
Silence is easier to bear
Than the words he knows he'd hear
Spoken lies to cover a wound that won't heal
Ignorance is safer when secrets are spilled in drops
Caught by trembling fingers
And washed away by red-hot shame
Burnt hands and cold smiles
Heatwaves and long sleeves
Hide the panic of discovery
The one secret never to be spilled
But told in trust to strangers who care not
For the stammered sob-story they've heard a million times before
The romanticised epidemic of souls screaming silently
In the dark and day
Wondering whether the pain is all it's made out to be
The leap of faith falling from the edge
Sink or swim, crash and burn
No one lands unscathed
The flames of life burn us all
In the end
Initials scrawled on closet doors and all-white walls
Marking the path for the next lost soul
A road well-travelled yet unfamiliar until he makes it home
And forgets how to find the way out