No One Ever Ask Me Poem by James McLain

I saw the cuts
cuts across her arms
across her wrists
I explained
to her that the numbness
not only in mind
but the unfeeling flesh
gave rise to the need
for others to feel your pain
and learning I listened
there was no fear
no fear of dying, relying
on no other
that would not profit
from the pain that you felt
that they could not
of it she said
was why she felt nothing
about sex
his long sharp knife carving
curving in, curving out
transferring the pain
to the knife once again
hoping, holding it in, it flowing out
like the tears
never shed they expected
you to shed
broken open the locked chest
kept hidden from her self
that the world
had no right to see.