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What I Don't Say

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In a series of poems, an unnamed narrator examines her best friend's addiction, her depression and sense of self, and what it is like to grow up when it seems like everyone she is surrounded by is falling apart. Containing elements of fiction and po...

#comingofage #fiction #poems #realistic #serious #teen #teenager #teenlife

I HOLD IT ALL IN ME -

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by patchofsemisweetkids

by patchofsemisweetkids

I hold it all in me –

My skin is still smeared with his

fingertips.

I smell like the grass of the

Shenadoah valley mixed with the

morphine-scent of my Grandfather’s

death bead.

My brain is bleached. My veins are black.

I hold it all in me –

Flashes of being pushed against the wall

(it still hurts, it still burns).

Nauseated smiles, sick stomachs,

images burned into my palms like calluses.

I hold it all in me –

Cautionary tales are sewn into my

eyelids. Words are burning the back

of my throat. My mouth tastes like

mints and blood.

I hold it all in me –

Alcohol glares in the eyes of one of my grandmothers,

Loneliness in the eyes of the other.

I hold it all in me –