gunwithoutmusic | 08. Touchy Subjects

"Wounds"
183 words. Approximate reading time: 1 minute. Audio version here.

I see you there,
Licking your wounds,
As though licking a wound
Ever made it better,

As though I don’t
Have wounds of my own
That I tend to
Only when you are asleep,

When the world is quiet
And I can focus my thoughts.

But you can still see them.
I know because you pick at my scabs
While I swathe yours in cotton
So they can heal properly.

Sometimes I think you are my penance,
And I am whipping myself
At your misguided direction,
Punishing my present for my past

When the room is dark
And I think no one can see.

And maybe that’s my problem.
I place the blame elsewhere
And focus my efforts on you
Rather than myself.

But maybe it’s your problem, too,
That your eyes are blind
(Perhaps willfully, perhaps not),
Or too inwardly focused too see

When my life is filled with light
And you come to take it away.

Whatever becomes of us,
Of you and me as individuals
Struggling to untangle ourselves
From the straps of the baggage

We cocooned each other up in,
May we emerge as ourselves, but better.
Will we emerge separately or together?
Only time will tell.

My only hope for you
Is that one day,
You take a look in the mirror
And you finally see your own face.