Poem...**WARNING: could be triggering**

***WARNING!*** The following poem contains very poignant references to self-harm. If you are triggered by

things like this please DO NOT read!!!

I just wrote this poem this afternoon, I was reading a booklet that my college puts out which features artwork and writing by students and was impressed by the personification of objects in some of the poems in the booklet. As I was heading back to my dorm the first few lines of this poem (more or less) came to my mind and thus this poem was started. Again I would like to warn any one who reads this blog that they should not read this poem because it could trigger them. Read at your own risk. Last think I would like to mention is that, though I am currently self-harm free (not sure how long it has been though) the backing for this poem comes from my own experiences with self-harm. Not everyone will find this poem to put into words their own feelings of self-harm.

My sharp, silvery seductress

Calls to me from the bathroom.

She tells me I should shower with her,

Bathe myself in the blood she brings,

So that in the end I can be clean.

The temptation

Seems too much.

The skin of my arm tingles,

Ready, willing to accept

My seductress past is surface,

Biting into the flesh

And tearing through to the blood.

My mind swims with memories

Of those intimate moments

Between my seductress and I.

Dancing together,

A lonely sort of dance

Only existing between

My seductress and my skin.

She reminds me

Of the relief she brings.

And my stressed out,

Anxious,

Confused mind

Wants to say

Yes

To her offer,

To delve into her promised relief.

Somewhere, through the thick mist of her promise

I remember the time before,

The last time my seductress seduced.

The relief she promised

It was fleeting

Gone in an instant.

She left me,

Alone.

With wounds that needed caring for.

Worth the short lived relief?

I wasn’t sure…

But her voice wasn’t leaving

She called out again

Inviting me to the bathroom,

My legs stretch out,

Move me toward the bathroom

Though my mind is telling them to stop.

My seductress whispers in my ear

Finally,

You decided to join me.

I knew you would.

And slowly, my mind slips away

Enveloped by the intimacy

Of seductress and skin.

Emmy R.