I have been a healer all my life,
mending broken souls without ever unveiling
the fractures beneath my own skin,
guarding everyone else's heart while leaving my fragile one bare to the world.
Only to be wounded by every soul I ever loved.
I lived for their happiness, carving pieces of myself away,
moulding myself into someone they might choose to keep.
I never asked for much. Only to be loved.
If not with the depth I loved them,
then at least with the kindness one human owes another.
Yet no matter what I become, it is never enough.
I have bled, and bled, and bled.
Still, they turn away, as though even the colour of my blood disappoints them.
I have poured myself out until there is nothing left to pour,
until my bones echo where a heart once lived.
I am tired. And still, I keep emptying myself
into hands that never hold me back.
But they are never satisfied. Will they ever be?
I already know the answer.
And when I die, I know the world will not stop.
Perhaps a tear. Perhaps a prayer. Perhaps a day or two of remembering.
Then silence. I will fade
the way I have always faded,
forgotten, long before my last breath,
invisible, even while I was still alive.