rachael richmond - forget i ever existed

i'm sitting here looking at it, lying there
like an elongated hedgehog too afraid to move.
i should pick it up and drag it through my dirty, tangled hair
but what does that prove?

i want to stay here, statue-like and solid,
made of concrete, my soft inner parts protected by a shell
or burn away into nothingness, like a soul vaporising in hell.

nothing outside my skin is safe,
the very air around me is tainted and foul,
evil beings lurk in every dusty corner of the room
and wait for the cover of darkness, to prowl.

i want to be not here, not there, not anywhere.
my very soul is now destroyed beyond repair.
leave me to rot till the flesh falls from my bones
and leaves them bare.

i am no longer me but a fragmented shadow of my former self.
burn me, take my stinking ashes and store them on a shelf.

then forget i ever existed.

rachael richmond

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forget-i-ever-existed/