Submissions by HeyThereGarbageCan

i've never been loved
the way you'd like me to love you
but it seems nice
so i ought to give it a try

if only i could.
my heart swells and aches
at the very idea,
and in the very worst way.

i can't show my skin
or pull myself out
without exploding
into tears and feathers

but one day, i'll bleed
for you, but not anytime
soon, not when i have this
ailment left over by my father
and my family's sickness.

Post-traumatic stress disorder
has a way of staying;
I have no real understanding of family
nor a trust for a family-like relationship

not since I was traumatized
by my own family's failures
and their attempts at denying it.

My honesty goes unappreciated.
"You're only making things worse,"
my mother reminds me after every
snide comment I make about her lack of discipline
towards my behavior disorder-ridden brother
or her tendency to be in denial
about my almost-pregnant hoodlum sister
or about how she never notices my...

There’s a lot you can tell
from the way people smell.

For instance,
My two best friends have
two very distinctive smells-

The bleach blonde
smelling like vanilla,
and something resembling
something perhaps minty-

she’s clean, she’s sweet,
and if I didn’t know better,
I’d say her skin peeled as
sugar and she bled syrup.

The brunette smells like
fruit and cigarettes-

easy to point the blame
for that one:

She’s a girl, oh, so easily
female; but she’s rough,
too. She doesn’t like to
not...