Moments Built Upon Words

City Lights

Bound to the ruins and claimed by the destruction

I was once whole

Like the great city of the Aztecs crafted by the Olmecs

Whom the world has sadly forgotten and abandoned

My heart is scattered like a broken window

Of the houses that families set on fire

Trying to show one another the light

Because in all their good intentions

They fail to look at themselves as monsters

As dragons threatening to destroy all that's right

All that I was saw outside of my window

Once wholesome with beauty

People try

Too hard

And in efforts to be extraordinary

They only exceed as dangerous

And maybe that is the beauty of the situation

It is not how we treat others

But how we treat ourselves

And I never thought annihilation was beautiful

Until I saw it upon myself

The bruises along my arms

The gaping slits that held galaxies

The nebulas under my fingernails

That I had scraped from my own skin

And as I grew older

The pain grew with me

But not in the form of worsening itself

But merely settling in

No longer did I cry when I lashed out at myself

No longer did I pity others pain

I had become numb to the destruction that was my escape

They locked me away and fattened me up

And I ate and ate and I watched the scars turn white

I was a good little girl

I had no intention of harming my city anymore

For the people were just like me now

They were not living

But instead silently bleeding

There was no trace of their existence

Yet they insisted on being heard

And on nights when I would lie alone

I'd shut my eyes and tell my brain to be quiet

And somewhere in the little town

I could see a fire burning