Odyssey Poetry: LUNGS
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Odyssey Poetry: LUNGS

She just wishes she could breathe without it hurting her lungs.

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Odyssey Poetry: LUNGS
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Sometimes, you just break. Not in front of people. Most of us break behind the scenes. Those of us who appear broken to others have often broken so many times behind the scenes that the collateral damage resonates across all social interaction. Breaking is a horrible, horrible thing.

I wish I could tell everyone reading this that it's going to be okay; that you'll eventually find a way to put yourself back together. I can't right now, but I hope that, one day soon, I'll be able to write that article.

Right now, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put myself back together. I feel... alone. But maybe Kathy Bates was right in P.S., I Love You. "If we're all alone, we're all together in that, too."

So this one's for you: all my broken people, who feel utterly alone. I'm just like you. We're together in that aloneness. Thanks for being here with me.

I wrote this poem shortly after something very traumatic occurred in my life; something that I was not allowed to have an authentic reaction to because I was plunged into a situation where watchful eyes were taking in my every move and noting the way I responded. I've never felt more alone than in the months that have followed this occurrence, where I have not been granted the privilege of grief in full, and therefore have been stagnant in this pain.

Don't let anyone see you breaking; and breathe, even if it hurts.

“She doesn’t break,” they all whisper

As they stare at her with wide eyes

“She isn’t like the rest of us,”

“She doesn’t scream, doesn’t cry”


"Until one day, she does,"

She wants to reply

And today is the day she just might


She doesn’t break in the way

that most people find

She doesn’t scream--


She doesn’t cry

In front of open arms

Or wandering eyes


When she does break

she shatters across the sky

She drives to a place

where she can be alone

And that is where she screams

That is where she cries


If there is collateral beauty

It’s very hard to find

She finds she grows a little more lost

With every breath that passes by


Peace is suddenly so hard

For her to discover

Even despite the guards on her heart

That she continues to uncover


She has to make friends

With the silence again

But she feels as if it betrayed her


Because in that sacred silence

Was where she met him

And while in her arms, he stabbed her


And in the silence

There is no longer solace

There is no rest for her weary soul


But instead in entraps her

The stillness catches her

And it eats at the joy that it stole


At night she stares at a wall

As if into a moonlit forest

But it’s filled with nothing but bones


There is only emptiness

Within her to find

Maybe one day she’ll refill it


Shattered, in shambles

Broken, but numb

Desperately still in love

Her heart cannot seem to rebuke it


She finds distances to stare into

Unbelievably low strung

She just wishes she could breathe

Without it hurting her lungs

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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