codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)
Codename: Wanderlust ([personal profile] codenamewanderlust) wrote2017-01-15 03:11 pm

LJ Idol 10: Week 5: Fear is the heart of love

TW: Self Harm, Suicide, Childhood trauma, Panic Attacks and Anxiety, If you gave birth to the author you should definitely not read this, you have been warned



Life Is Pain

The feeling of the carpet scratching your face
Wakes you up in the middle of the night
You’re gasping for air

trying
not
to remember

You don’t want to remember
the feeling of begging for your dignity
Your clothes being pulled off

You try to convince yourself
it wasn’t really like that
You’re just a drama queen

Looking for attention
But you’re irrationally afraid
for the children in paper towel commercials

You can’t accept your own truth
can’t bring yourself to believe
It was even real

Can’t bring yourself
To cause her pain
Even now (Especially now)

Separated by miles
And chasms full of skeletons
stuffed into closets, hidden under the bed

You’re told she is sick
And you’re sorry
You’re so fucking sorry

You want to tell her you forgave her years ago
She was so young
When she carried you inside of her

You try to think good thoughts for her
You try to look at her pictures
The endless stream of cyber scrapbooks

But you can’t shake the feeling
You’ve forgotten something
You’re body knows what your mind is hiding

the world suddenly stops making sense
and you think maybe
you need to get far away

Punching walls so hard
your knuckles bleed
Redirecting energy

You’re Bruce Banner about to become a sobbing incoherent Hulk
born of an anger that sounds like your mother
slamming every cabinet door

and breaking the dishes in the sink
when she gets home from work
because you really should have washed them

They tell you
your mother is sick
and you have to make amends

You’re standing in the kitchen peeling an orange
when you realize you can’t remember
when you decided to eat an orange

You need to pull yourself together
pull yourself back to the moment
that is right the fuck now

You believed you’d already exorcised this demon
the night before your 28th birthday
fading into the bathroom floor (the high was a bonus)

Slurring your words as you sipped wine with your roommates
You’d swallowed three more DXM pills
than you had the day before

Trying to work up the courage
to take the whole bottle
Your heart crying out

Is this
finally
good enough?

It was a bargain
when you continued to live
raised from perdition

You really want to forget
the times you volunteered as tribute
when her wrath was turned on your sister

You still get itchy in your skin
when your roommates are noisy in the kitchen
You flinch when your lover shouts

You protect your boundaries like The Commander Of The Wall
like John Snow hurling yourself into battle
without thinking about the aftermath because

you already came back from the dead once anyway
There are only ten contacts in your address book
and your mother still isn’t one of them

You burn and slice through your skin
trying to div out what you did wrong this time
Standing at the bathroom sink trying to work up the courage

Until she holds your nose
Pouring the bitter liquid down your throat
You never did like the taste of cough syrup

You catch yourself stepping over cracks ——
Step. Step. Step.
Hop. Skip. Blink.

You blink every time you pass a dotted yellow line
Imagining the car is between two lines
You’re 8, 10, 12, 15, 21

and you play this game whenever she is driving
Her words hurting more than the bruises when she swings
and your head hits the passenger window

You lied to yourself your teachers
and learned to fight back
It was always your fault anyway

Locked in the bathroom confused and alone
the burning pain of her hand
still on your cheek

You were just a bad kid
Spoiled rotten
Pain in the ass

Get out of my sight
or
I’ll give you something to cry about

Slamming the door repeatedly
to distract yourself from fear
until it’s removed from it’s hinges

Humiliation used as a tool
to chip away at your adolescent psyche
Someone is telling you it’s going to be okay

but you’re confused
You’re too busy trying to survive
without hurting anyone

Your hands look like her hands now
You have to remind yourself to breath
You feel like you’re drowning anyway

It’s muscle memory
A survival instinct
to protect your vital organs

Hiding in closets
At the top of the stairs
Refusing to come closer

Pain becomes your totem
This is awake
This is what’s real

She’s sick
And you’re sorry
And nothing ever really changes


_________________________
750 words (technically +1 that's crossed out)

[identity profile] lostin-thestars.livejournal.com 2017-01-16 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
This was so well written. I was holding my breath as I read.

[identity profile] rswndrlst.livejournal.com 2017-01-16 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)

thank you for reading! This was a hard one to put out there, I almost didn't post it but I'm glad I did.

LJI fav reads list, week 5

[identity profile] livejournal.livejournal.com 2017-01-16 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
User [livejournal.com profile] belenen referenced to your post from LJI fav reads list, week 5 (http://belenen.livejournal.com/681753.html) saying: [...] http://rswndrlst.livejournal.com/11918.html [...]

[identity profile] rayaso.livejournal.com 2017-01-16 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
This was so open and raw!

[identity profile] rswndrlst.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 03:33 am (UTC)(link)

I blame Gary...and Death Cab For Cutie, thank you for reading

[identity profile] halfshellvenus.livejournal.com 2017-01-17 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
This was really well-written, and such a vivid series of snapshots of wrongs and pain and fear and the fallout that continues years afterward.

You’re too busy trying to survive
without hurting anyone

And that is the theme clear to the end, where you are sorry she is dying, truly sorry, but you don't reach out because you have finally learned to protect yourself first.

[identity profile] rswndrlst.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 03:22 am (UTC)(link)

wow I didn't even make that connection because yes, I really DON'T want to hurt anyone, even her, despite everything


(full disclosure: I've heard she is in remission)

[identity profile] j0ydivided.livejournal.com 2017-01-17 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
Oh man, that last line. This is wonderfully done.

[identity profile] rswndrlst.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 03:09 am (UTC)(link)

Thank you!

[identity profile] bleodswean.livejournal.com 2017-01-17 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
*hugs* Things can change, it sounds as though you've effected change in your own life. I can't imagine how difficult it is for you to cast a clear eye over such dark dark things. This was a brave piece of writing. Keep casting your light. Keep moving forward, away from what lies behind you.

[identity profile] rswndrlst.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 03:09 am (UTC)(link)

Thank you so much! internet was down where I'm at all day today and I'm behind on my reading/commenting


I appreciate this comment and writing this was scary but cathartic and truly gave me some perspective moving forward. The hardest part is that I lived in denial for so long that some part of me insists that I'm remembering at all wrong.


I almost took a bye this week when this was the first thing that came to mind when I read the prompt but something Gary said in the GR made me reconsider.

Edited 2017-01-18 03:24 (UTC)

[identity profile] eternal-ot.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
*Hugs* and *Applause* for writing what scares you. This was very well written. I got entangled into the story before I could pull myself out. Good Job!

[identity profile] penpusher.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
The rhythm and the pacing of the piece move it along at a pace that really bombards the reader and hammers home the abuse. But the ending was the real kick in the gut.

[identity profile] magazhchi.livejournal.com 2017-01-18 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)

*Hugs* I am sorry to know this is non- fiction. But you did a great job of conveying the emotions. Raw and disturbing.

[identity profile] my-name-is-jenn.livejournal.com 2017-01-19 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
This was so well done. I can't imagine it was easy to write, but good for you for getting it out there. It took a lot of bravery to do that.

*hugs*
ext_29986: (Default)

[identity profile] fannishliss.livejournal.com 2017-01-19 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry you had to go through so much suffering. hugs