Is This the Only Way?- 3 Feb 1999

She sits alone in her room,
crying in the darkness.
Why are her parents so abusive?
Is there hope?

She gazes around the black room for something,
anything to ease her pain.
Her eye is caught by a metallic object.
The tears subside as she ponders what it could be.

She picks up the metal object and brings it to her eye.
The moonlight catches it just right; it's a razor blade.
Her thoughts begin to race,
ah yes, the "cure" she was looking for.

She pulled back her sleeve,
exposing her delicate skin.
She lowered the blade to her arm.
The blade hesitates for a moment.

She begins to have second thoughts.
She pulls the blade back a fraction of an inch.
Her anguish returns with a vengeful power.
She lowers the blade back to her arm.

With a deep breath and closed eyes,
She makes her first incision.
As her flesh is torn open, her blood flows freely,
glistening like a bloodstone in the moonlight.

As the blood flows out of her body,
her pain flows with it.
She now has a sense of release;
the torment is gone.

Again and again she severs her flesh,
as if to bleed out her agony.
Her anguish is temporally subsided.
Is this the only way?

Copyright © 2001 Kendra Horn