Asymmetrical

vi

Books are scattered everywhere,
Notes are flying here and there,
Highlighters of every colour in the box,
Revision the only thought occupying her mind.

She makes flash cards for last minute revision,
Wishing the B turns into an A,
Medical school or nothing else,
Is what she has been told.

Sleep is the last priority,
The midnight light has been burnt and used,
But she still continues studying,
To empower herself with knowledge.

With every answer gone wrong,
A cut is what she makes,
Her ankles bruised purple and crimson,
That's the only way to be punished.

Her hand trembles as she turns the pages,
Praying the answer is correct,
Another wound is not something she can tolerate,
Another iota of pain and she is dead.

The answer is one not two,
And she takes the sharp knife,
Slicing through her ankle where
The socks conceal the scars.

A drop of blood falls on the book,
Slowly seeping through the pages,
They are stained red like rubies,
Like the corpuscles in her veins.

She knows it is wrong,
But it's the habit of learning,
She cannot afford to be lenient when
Everything is on the line.

Streets will be her home,
Drugs her support,
Sex her source of income,
If she doesn't make that cut.

-A girl who hopes that one day her education will not be painful.