Off My Chest

I need to get you off my chest

I’ve never felt relaxed in my life because you raised me in the war zone of your wrath

Bombs of panic explode in my mind all day every day

Choking me with your smoke and mirrors even though you are far away

My ears ring with your shouting

You were the biggest little tyrant

Not even two years my senior

Yet always more needy

Mandating, yet begging

I didn’t realize the power I had over you, and still do

You were the one dependent on me for affirmation, not the other way around

I didn’t have a choice then, but I do now-

To live a life without your storms brewing on my horizon

I’ve never slept well in my life because I thought you were going to murder me in my sleep throughout our childhood and adolescence

I used lie in bed wearing a cross around my neck with a note attached to it asking you to think before acting, waiting for dawn to break, dreading another day with you, feeling trapped and hopeless with no end in sight

I never felt protected, respected, seen or heard by our parents

In moments of desperation, I wish you had killed me

Instead you continue to torture me passive aggressively, and I am passive passive aggressive

Silenced, as if buried alive

I toss and turn, tormented between insomnia and nightmares

I’m trying to think before I act

I am upset that I’m even thinking about you now

I am upset about how you get upset ‘at’ me: you throw your rage at me and have me clean up the mess, time and time again, left to calm your ass down as if your reactions were justifiable or somehow my fault

It was never my fault

I am not responsible for how you feel

Leave me alone you evil bitch

I want to scream at you with the force of 35 years of repressed anger and tears

At the same time, I am trying to let go of the hot coal which burns my palm

I am trying to let the rippling waters of my pond be still

I am trying to not be irritated, for only then will you no longer be irritating

I am trying to take responsibility for my thoughts and feelings

I am tired of trying so damn hard

I am ready for ease

I am ready for peace

I am ready to breathe

Please, get off my chest

I don’t need to ask- I am responsible for how I feel

I’m not sure what to do next

I’ll probably meditate and self-medicate with raw emo poetry

Like the note pinned to my cross-necklace, you will probably never read this

But maybe those who matter will

Those who feel they are suffering alone

May find healing in this onion peel

And breathe just one breath more freely

For this I humbly pray

Namaste

Rock

When struggling through life

I met the waves head-on

Gasping and nearly drowning as adversity slapped me in the face

Dragging down my body and my morale

Slowly, painfully, my ego was chipped away

Now a smoother stone, when the forces come at me

I bunker down in the stream bed

And let them pass over me with intentional non-effort

Challenges will always be a part of life

I used to be a leaf tossed by the wind

Now I embody the ever-present rock within

This is a practice, not a perfect

My ego still protests in victimized shame

I send a softening breath to my hard-headed brain

And soothe myself

You are OK

This is hard

You are doing your best

You are more than perfect: you are human

Humans get to live the beauty of learning from their experiences

Just breathe

Vanish

You struggle to breathe

Your lungs groan under the weight of a million cigarettes

Your body will not heal, nor will you allow it to

You prefer to smoke tobacco than to breathe, you tell me

Your liver is hardened

Fluid builds up in your legs, abdomen and lungs

You bleed into your GI tract

Again and again

Requiring dozens of blood transfusions

Until when?

You prefer to drink than to live, you tell me

Your blood harbors viruses and bacteria

Years of IV drug abuse riddle your veins

My eyes draw lines between the scars on your skin

And spell out your pain

Your body is massively obese

You’ve had just desserts

Your blood is dangerously sweet

The food on the menu is not nourishing

With vibrant foods, we could all be flourishing

Instead we are toxic

Now you’re turning hypoxic

Your own body gets in the way of breathing

Rather than a vehicle, your body is your handicap

Too much mass to move

Stumbling, you tumble into my view

Bullet wounds have torn right through you

Senseless violence, what kind of freedom is this?

We reserve the right to die at the hands of another at any time

I want to take all the suffering I see

Concentrate that energy inside me

And use it to wipe away cigarettes and liquor stores,

Smash opioids off the face of the planet, and while I’m at it

Take my magic wand and with a swish banish sugar from our lips

Eliminate weapons with one wish

I’ll water that seed of hope with the tears of those who know, so it will grow

And we shall be sheltered in our old age by the tree planted in our youth

We’ve suffered enough to learn how to thrive in our world- at least we’ve discovered what not to do.

I have a dream that tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, processed foods, and guns will vanish.

I realize that this is unlikely to happen for a while, as there are profits to be made and suffering to be had.

Taking into account the billions of healthcare dollars it costs to deal with lung disease, liver disease, drug addiction, diabetes and gun violence, let alone the immeasurable cost of lost lives and poor health, how can we afford to carry on the way we have been?

If a substance is harmful, let it vanish.

Why hold on to that which is no longer serving us?

We can do anything with our infinite human potential.

We alone can change our lives and leave the world better than we found it.

Let’s do what we can before we vanish

Do something today

There is no guide book

Vote with your dollars, your actions, your thoughts

Breathing in gratitude, I thank you

Poetry

Poetry won’t stop leaking out of me
My hands get a tingle
My mind sings a jingle
I search for paper on which to scratch
Anything within reach
Backs of receipts, napkins, old scraps
All other activity falls to the wayside
Until I see the poem before my eyes

I write about the unspoken suffering of my life
Of being brutally silenced
Since infancy I was trained not to cry when I wanted to cry
My feelings were an inconvenience to those by my side
I came to understand that my needs were not important enough to be expressed, and if I made the mistake of even showing how I felt through my face or my body, such truth was beaten out of me by those closest to me
Far worse than the violence was the mental abuse
and even worse than the mental abuse was the neglect
Sometimes I felt invisible and other times I felt like I wasn’t invisible enough
I wished that I could fly away
The shouting was so loud, where could I hide?
I locked my door but they always burst inside
No boundaries
I cried in secret silence everyday
I learned that I existed to be what others wanted me to be
I delivered what was required
Though inside me raged a fire
The primordial desire
To be free
I’d give anything to live just for me

When I became grown, I left home
But my well-trained brain followed me wherever I roamed
Autonomy is foreign to me
I met many lovers but they always chose me
Because I pleased them easily
I never returned the favor
Of serving up the criticism they so abundantly showered upon me

Joyfully, I recently discovered that the suffering of my life has a name;                                                            Narcissistic Abuse
There are healthier ways to love, ladies and gentlemen
I want more harmony and less harm done to me
I am trying to create a life that I want to live,
One where I give from my heart instead of feeling like a marionette jerked around by the malicious hands of fear

I want to tell others how I feel and what I am thinking
Speak from my heart
Release my throat chakra
Weave a tapestry with the golden thread of my truth
Relentlessly I work at this nearly impossible task
Like a seed below the soil, the only place I have to grow is toward the sun
But healing my mind feels like building a castle on quicksand
My efforts collapse, fall and fail every day

I must remember to give myself compassion, the way I try to give my abusers compassion
I have succeeded before in speaking my mind
With every break-up, no matter how clumsy my wording or how long it took me to work up the courage
I want to tell my exes that when I hurt them by finally breaking up with them, it was because I was trying to reclaim my life and honor both of us
God, have I suffered at the hands of men
When they hurt me, it was because they were trying to get a rise out of me, or hurt me out of spite
I want to tell them: Get a life, you jerks

May they stop terrorizing me and find inner peace swiftly

I feel awful about the things I’ve done that I didn’t want to do
Especially the things I’ve done with men
The sex was violent, violating, painful and humiliating
If only I could forget it, but even my body remembers
I think I will always see men as perpetrators, even though not all of them are
An overwhelming amount of the ones I’ve known are
I struggle to shake them off me when they’re ready to rape me yet they’re nowhere to be found when I’m ready to abort our unplanned pregnancies
That excruciating physical and emotional pain is just for me

The bloody landscape of no man’s land

I understand that as an adult survivor of child abuse, I attract abusers
I’m developing a repellant
By noticing patterns and breaking them
Prevent problems before they start
The best defense is a good offense

I still worry
Worry that my heart will always feel broken
Worry that the countless times I was raped will catch up with me in the form of STDs or infertility
I worry that I will always live in fear
I worry that I will always worry
I worry that I will feel sad and mad all my life
I worry that I will continue to suffer though I shouldn’t worry about that because suffering is guaranteed and worrying will do no good
Life is pain
That’s the rule of the game
I can still win the game of life even though I was born with disadvantages, for my advantages are greater still
I have hope and heart
I’m writing a happy ending to my story
I am writing with a golden pen of glory
I am writing unstoppable poetry
Until victory, always

Thank you.

New Role

New Role

While I was sleeping last night
A baby cried nearby
My dream translated the sound
Into you talking to me
You said, ‘I hate you because I’m shy’
I asked incredulously, ‘You hate me because you’re shy?’
Already in this short dream I had had enough of taking the blame for your issues, so accompanied by a friend, I stormed out
As fast as I could
But in dream-scape
It was like moving through thick gelatin
The next room I entered, with you right behind me,
Had my male cousins in it
I said, loudly enough for you to hear,
‘Hey, it’s my male cousins!’
And they each extended a hand to help pull me forward
I took this to mean that I have protective forces in my life
And I have help, if I just reach out and accept it
After waking, I reflected that I am the one who often resents others
Because I am too shy to express myself to them
So I feel like a victim
But I’m ready for a new role

I awoke to the sound of the baby crying,                                                                                       And prayed that she would continue to express herself freely;                                                      A gentle reminder that I once knew how                                                                                              To release my voice                                                                                                                         Without a filter                                                                                                                                         And let it fly