The Living Mirror Poem by Jessica Gabanyic

You'll never know,
You'll never know a person,
Never know their story
Unless they have told you,
You can't possibly feel,

You'll never feel the anguish,
Until you've seen one fall to its wrath,
The pain that puts them down no matter what,
The hurt of knowing you are never wanted,
You can't possibly see,


You can't see,
That the tears they try so hard to hide
Fall anyways,
How every step is like drowning in loneliness,
Followed by unforgiving guilt,
How even when they smile,
They feel nothing but emptiness,
You can't hear,

When you can't stand to hear,
A person's plea for relief,
To hear the broken sobs that rack a person's body,
Stiffening their posture to something you don't recognize,
Remember,


How when someone dedicated a second for you,
How they watched you fall
And not get back up,
How every time they kept asking,
Was I right?
Replaying every situation that had happened,
Wondering what they did wrong,
Praying that one day you'll forgive them,
Hoping that when they die you'll not become them,
Wishing that every day you would cherish it until you take your last breath,
By then all the wishing, hoping, praying, and wondering will be a distant memory,
That even then they will return to earth just as they had become human,
That even when they had wished, hoped, prayed, and wondered they will never truly understand,

They will never truly understand,
Why you chose to run away when you could of walked,
How even then you would succumb to the painful sorrow
And stay there,
How when you fell
You'd never get back up,
Regardless of their effort to help you up,
How learning to fall was like laying in your death bed,
Useless, painful, hard, and undeniably their story on repeat,
Because even when they tried to understand the reality hit them harder,
Harder than the blind-fold they put over their eyes,
Just so they didn't have to see the anguish and loneliness that they created in you.