Scarred

Do you have any scars?

Do you hide them?

Do you proudly tell their stories

Or do you deny them?

When they are mentioned

Do you brush their truth aside?

Would you rather pull up that collar

Than talk about something you despised?

Do the scraped elbows and bruised knees

Remind you of blissful childhood?

Or was it youthful adventure

That didn’t turn out the way you thought it would?

A glance at some of those scars and you flinch;

Yes, they were not mere grazes.

Those gashes went deep, they burned and throbbed,

Those were unforgettable phases.

Each scar has a past, a history,

That etched its mark on your present.

The tears and lesions filled in

But the emptiness they left are still unpleasant.

No matter how black and blue they look

Or hurt those memories you repressed,

Those scars will heal along with time

And maybe, someday, they'll be caressed.

Those scars are proof that you've overcome

They mean you outlived those times

They are beautiful, they are you

They deserve the spotlight, a chance to shine

The time has gone, the hurt unhurt

The wounds have healed and you've survived

The marks they've left are of your strength

Each one of them are lessons archived

Don't hide your scars no more

Put them up as laurels on your shelves

Show them off in all their grandeur,

Cause each of them have a story to tell.