If you drew a map of my heart,
you would find patches of emptiness,
cracks where love is leaking out,
and a barely healed hole where my monsters crept in.

Hush now.
They’re still sleeping.

It’s not their fault
their claws inflame my flesh
until I could burn the whole world.

It took me 13 years to realize
that I was not the only one
who held beasts in the hollow of her heart,
that others felt the scrape of talons
against their insides
and struggled to swallow the screams.

It took me 13 years to realize that everyone I know
has a heart crisscrossed with flaws and battle scars

I was 14 when I realized that it was okay.

I didn’t want to understand.
I was trying to sing my own monsters to sleep.
I didn’t want to know that everyone had them.

But one day, I felt a knocking on the inside of my heart.
Someone was trying to tell me something.

“What is it?” I whispered. “I’m trying to sleep.”

And Fear whispered back,
“It just means you’re not alone.
It means I’m not alone.”