The society in which we live requires one to go to school and graduate college in order to have a decent living. I don't see this as fair. People often get "school" and "education" mixed up. School is a place where education is taught, but what happens when the school is not properly educating it's students? Is a piece of paper stating that you've graduated college really the only credible evidence that proves you are intelligent and are capable of learning? Everyone is different, we are smart at different things, but we all still have so much to contribute. School is just a mask.

Sometimes

the hardest things to bear

are wounds that one can't see are there

They're hidden underneath the skin

Within the hollow bones that you swear you can hear crack at night

But that's your broken heart

Headache in your brain it tells you you're not all that smart

Sadness

Corrupting your little veins

The branches in your lungs are out of luck

You feel ashamed

These fingerprints are made of paper cuts

A splinter is placed with a nail gun

Walk now with your broken feet

Or crawl around your own defeat

I've been looking

through old photographs

from when you were young

and your lips

were chapped

and I never realized

how empty

your eyes looked

when you'd laugh

and I wonder

if anyone

notices

the space between

my fingers where

yours used to reside

and I wonder

how long

I can hide

your death

behind

a smile

you've always been a cocoon to me

and I know it's foolish

to wrap one's self up in

another with broken wings

but the way your feathers felt

all around me

wasn't something I could sacrifice

for safety

how could I have known

your barbed wire underbelly

would swallow me whole

with angry words and broken promises

how could I have known

butterflies don't emerge

from the talons of a sparrow

no matter how soft

the killer sings

my skin feels tight

unfurl my tendons and ligaments

pull on me, stretch me out

until all of my scars are gone

I want to be plucked apart

dissected and examined

like a science project

an insult could cut through

my paper skin

if you peel back this facade

you'll see flashes of

my forgotten self

lurking underneath