Once she said she was going to come back

Like she said every few months

And then we wouldn’t hear from her for some week

And we still played with joy and buoyancy

She always came back

Once I played with toy skateboards

All my friends were boys that I wrestled

And she didn’t come back this time

And this time she wrote a note

With a bottle of alcohol next to her

And this time she didn’t promise

I was in foster car

And all of the families seemed

Like just a place to sleep

Once there were kids who shot bullets

Out of their mouths

Except those bullets were words

And those bullets hit me

And it started because I liked my friend

Who happened to be a girl

So I started isolating myself

And was surrounded by my thoughts

Instead of people

Once the only pain I could feel

Was the sting of a razor sliding against my skin

And the only calming thing was the sight of my own blood

And candy became pills for me

The only thing that would that would distract me but

after it was over, the rush, reality came back

And that’s when the cuts started to become horizontal instead of vertical

Once there was a girl whose words were as calming as waterfalls

And we would talk for hours, about everything

And she helped me forget about things, without drugs, or a razor

She became a great friend

And I became hers

I learned to deal with life

And I learned what it’s like to have someone there for you

How to be happy for a while

How to make others happy

And how to forget the past

Despite all the bad