SURVIVOR
You thrust a mic in front of my face
Ask me what it’s like being a survivor
But you don’t really want to know
You can’t handle it.
Do you want to know what being a survivor means?
It means not surviving for years and years
It means being made to love my jailer
It means that he called me ‘pet’ and I felt like one
And didn’t mind—didn’t know I should.
Do you want to know what being a survivor means?
It means that I had to hide in books, hide inside my head and
Stick my fingers in my ears when he was yelling all my sins and
Still I couldn’t escape him, his voice, his thoughts drilled in me an d
Now I can’t read the same books or look at my old notebooks or at
The trees I loved without hearing his voice in my head
Telling me I am the wrongest thing that ever was and
I’m not crying as I write this even though I should be
But I am still numb I can’t believe I’m free
Maybe because I’m not and will never be.
You ask me how did I survive and I
Want to tell you that there were days I did not survive
I’m still living in them, I’m still stuck there I will never get out
But you can’t handle it, can you?
You have no idea what you are asking me and how could you so
I lie and say: ‘Someone loved me’.
That’s how I survived.
And it’s true, he did, except
I did not survive him either.
And I think I don’t deserve to
Have sisters
Love them
Have a father
Love him
Have the sad boy
Love him
Not forget him
Not disappear
Come back
Exist
Live
Live
Live.
Do you want to know what being a survivor means?
It means some days I feel like I didn’t survive at all.