A tear slides down, 
Onto my chest 
To mingle with the profane syllables 
That slip over your lips. 
Rolling off your tongue to build 
An imagined wall around your aching heart. 
Yet my eyes, bathed in mourning mists 
Have numbly pierced 
The cloud that shrouds about you. 
I see in your gaze popular, cruelly beautiful,
Fake.
And you see in mine a broken, hardened, emotional 
Loser.
But that is not what fills my eyes, 
Oh, no!
I see hope kiss your blinded lashes.
And what you cannot see are the scars.
The lines painted onto my legs that match every stroke traced by the pain you feel on your beautiful wrists. 
All you see is the unbroken flesh on my arms
That which cries is hidden but it knows you.
Can't you understand?!
The irony.
You are deafened to my entreaty because you stereotype me to stereotype you
Shattered glass, feel my beating heart. 
It beats for every breath that escapes your burning lungs
And it beats harder for every breeze that fills it!
You and I, we breathe the same air.
We choke on the same smoke.
We cry the same tears.
We hold the same knife.
But mirror, oh mirror of my shattering,
You cannot see but the monster which has created you.
And it has painted you in its likeness
But you are blind,
And so are they.
For I am not that monster.
My body
My hair
My clothes
Remind you of your nightmares
But darling, peer a little deeper
Gaze into my eyes, behold this heart,
Pounding in a cage of bones
Can't you see? 
I have drained the blood, 
Instead, 
Hope.
Peace.
Truth.
Love.