Cutting Is Common

You see her from across the way
Reading what her body says
Long sleeves whispering of bleeding wrists
Eyes hang low, silently admitting it

You know all of these signs so well
The language it speaks, the stories they tell
It reads like novels, all full of misery
Some of the pages torn from your own history

Does it help you to see someone do it like you did
Can you see why your friends misconstrued it?
And they worried about you all night, every night
Can you see now how it was justified fright?

You study her scars and know it's not for attention
The contours of cuts you know that you should not mention
They creep back into darkness as she pulls down her sleeve
Her body is anxious, now she can't wait to leave

She'll return home, lock her door and hide
Like the scars that she covers, she turns from the light
They won't go away, they'll be there forever
Through the pain of her life, they'll go through together

Before those lines can heal or fade
She's overwhelmed by another cycle of hate
She covers her old friends with new bloody lines
It helps her get through it, while her newest wounds cry

The night's memory is now etched in her arm
She'll keep it a secret, no need for alarm
She avoids the questions that her parents ask
And at school, she always sits in the back of the class

You'd want to approach, but don't know what to say
You fear her reaction of sending you away
So you'll just stay sitting in your comfortable silence
While she quietly endures through her self-injuring violence