The pain runs in lines
Drops form and congeal
They smart as they start to heal
Why am I cursed
With this compulsion
To draw lines
upon my skin
My arm tells a story
My legs are a map
My shoulders show
Their stripes
I am a soldier
Returning from war
With wounds that
Tell my story
My gashes heal
But new ones are torn afresh
I have survived one battle
But I already fight the next
This is the struggle
That never stops
I am within its grasp
For ever
What would my old schoolmates say
If they saw how I had changed
My body is a roadmap
Of pain and suffering
My eyes are blank
My heart is broken
My life is ruined
And I,
I am dead
