Literature
this is a warning.
i.
The first thing you need
to know about people is this:
we're shitty.
ii.
If you cut off our head,
we will grow two in its place.
We will divide and conquer
until there's nothing left
but tiny gaping mouths,
clacking and salivating
at the crumbs of an empire.
iii.
They tell me hurt is like
a paper cut:
quick and forgotten,
forgotten.
They're wrong.
Hurt is the first step
off a balcony,
the first gasp
in a chain reaction
screaming from the railing
to beyond the pavement.
When I finally hit the ground,
I looked up and saw my halo
dangling from the edge,
dented.
iv.
We cycle.
He said, she said,
I wanted, he lost, she won,
I ruined