Don’t you see?
Your body sprouts out flowers from the crevices
in which the demons broke you.
The tallied marks that line your skin show such fears and troubles
that consumed the life you were aching to leave behind.
Darkness is exposed in your eyes —
the eyes that witness the hell you wish you could
escape.
You’re screaming for answers, and you’re begging
for the grass-stained-knees childhood memories
to take you away from this horror,
this pain.
You flirt with death with every purge,
with every mark on your wrist, with every pill you swallow.
Don’t you dare say you aren’t beautiful because you’re broken.
The light still shines through your cracks, and
Oh god, your smile kills me. You’re brighter than you think.
Your body is like a map, and each of those marks shows
the terrible destinations you were trapped in.
Let me in. Don’t you die out.
You’re killing the light in your eyes.
Your body is the battlefield, and you’re stuck in war.
Carissa Cicchini is a 17-year-old Canadian girl who lives through the poetry she writes. She’s been inspired through experiences, through losses and gains, and through the lives of others around her. When she’s older, she wants to be a tattoo artist, but she also dreams of inspiring others with her poetry and writing. The band Marianas Trench saved her life.