Battles Honored

Cords hang from my neck,

Displaying the battles won.

Weighed down, yet rose up.

When a Professor Meets You Where You Are

Fatigue beyond the norm.

150% input

80% output

None will ever understand these stats

Unless they've lived the math. 

Boulders had piled high,

Until a professor with eyes and a heart crossed my path.

Understanding he couldn’t understand,

Still, he listened.

He broke boulders into gravel.

In my fatigue,

He made this weight more bearable.

For once in over a year,

Now I could breathe.

I could perform.

I can be proud even with my imperfections.

Galaxies Revealed

Stumbled, fell, and broke your skull,

World shredded into smithereens.

Independence snatched,

Physiology forced to adapt,

Continuing classes, trying to reattach.

Services weaponized their power.

Trying to raid mine, they attacked from behind.

Taking the knife from my back,

I refused to fall victim to an attack.

I bled, swore, cried, screamed,

But I was blinded to anyone able to help me.

I hid in shadows,

Wounded warrior in a never-ending battle,

Still fighting for the relief Services kept from reach.

Glows shone from peers passing.

Oblivious to my gasping from a twisted blade

They claimed the light I was clawing to achieve.

Knife still in hand,

I traded it for a pen.

Written words changed worlds--

Passion churned to action.

Galaxies overshadowed by glowing awards

Lit up each backroad—each ally.

Ones stabbed were found.

Trading blades for lenses,

They could finally see their stars.

Different Paths of Hell

I fight through hell every day,

A constant war inside my brain.

Scream where no one can hear

As I watch others walk through hell,

Others watch hell from the outside looking in,

Others stroll on a sunny day with daisies surrounding--

Hell, an afterthought in the imagination.

This war in hell inside my head,

Crippling in a way they will never understand.

Invisible wars receive invisible rewards.

[Chains force me to the flaming floor] 

Invisible understandings.

[Smoke burns my eyes with shrapnel]

Invisible accessibility.

[More boulders pile on my shoulders]

Invisible comprehensions.

[Onlookers see but will never feel.]