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Paper Skin

A Poem

By Ornella MirrenPublished 6 years ago 1 min read
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I always wondered how it felt,

it's strange to start it now

I want to learn to like myself

but no one taught me how

If you undress my responsibility,

you’ll find I’ve got paper skin,

and you’d think after years of pretending,

it would be much thicker than thin.

Sometimes I feel like someone who’s not,

and today my chest feels heavy,

like someone cut their hand on my broken my heart,

and no one thought to tell me.

But all the words you’ve ever said,

are preserved in ink inside my head,

and all the letters I never wrote,

are smudged in pencil around my throat.

I feel unease in my body,

like I grew it there myself,

I didn’t know the effects,

of putting my love on the shelf.

My paper skin is full of words

I hope not to hear again,

they’re black and bold across my chest,

In permanent marker pen.

I can’t catch up to my feelings,

but now my mind has gone flat,

it took me a while to realise,

I’m not myself but who is that?

There’s no one left to talk to,

no one, least of all me,

and my paper skin is tearing,

but nobody wants to see.

Introducing me to myself

I don’t want to do it again,

we didn’t leave on good terms,

we didn’t leave as friends.

She asks me to remember,

and I just don’t think I can,

wrap me up in a different skin,

and ask me who I am

sad poetry
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