You wanna know how I got these scars?
Before I had the chance to be a little girl
My father decided he didn’t want me,
And when mother refused to get rid of me
He walked out on her
Despite the fact that she still loved him,
When he isn’t busy ignoring me
He is getting drunk
And calling to tell me that my existence
Is still his biggest regret

You wanna know how I got these scars?
My mother is so fragile
I knew that if I were to show her
The monsters running rampant in my mind
They would eat her alive,
But I had to cope somehow,
Hiding the battleground
Beneath bracelets and long sleeved shirts
Was the only way to keep her safe

You wanna know how I got these scars?
You aren’t the only person that thinks
What I did is something to be ashamed of,
Others have looked at the marks
Lining my arms like train tracks
And asked me why I stopped
Before I reached the final destination,
Others have told me that I should’ve just finished the job,
Do you know how it feels
To be told you deserve to be dead
Because you fought to stay alive?

You wanna know how I got these scars?
Depression robbed me of the ability
To feel anything at all,
I was nothing,
So I peeled back my skin
To see if I could still feel pain
Because pain is better nothing,
I looked at my pulse from the inside
To see if my heart was still beating
Because that was the only way I could tell
Whether or not I was alive

You wanna know how I got these scars?
I was in a war,
My only options were to lay down and die
Or to go out kicking and screaming
To fight tooth and nail
And razor blade,
To put everything I had into just staying alive,
I won a war,
Did you really expect me to come home
Without any battle scars?