Hurt Me Poem by Jamie Loughlin

How could you hurt me?
I cannot go back.
I cannot grow back.
I just pretend
it never happened
because it overwhelms me.

If I forgive you
don't manipulate me.
Can I hold my tongue
when I see others
get the treatment
I wished to have received?

I will never be the same.
No, I will never
be like you.
I cannot trust
and I cannot ever
forget you.

I tried to forgive you
but you still don't admit
your faults
and somehow
it's all my doing.

As if a child
could ever be
accountable for your mistakes.

I was the one hurt,
so why are you not the one
apologizing?
I don't care if you cry.
I am the only one
who has the right
to be hurting.

Do not smile.
You took my smile away
from me, what gives you
the right? The authority?

I need to forgive you
because it's hurting me
to keep hating
someone who's supposed to love me.

You do not like me
because of who I am
but I have to like you
because of who I am.

Isn't it the morally
right thing to do?
To forgive those who
have hurt you
and broken you
and used you?

I do not understand
how you can smile and
tell me I should not have been born
all on the same day.

How you can tell me
I'm a curse
and then bless me
that same day.

You do not deserve
to be part of my life.
Yet you are,
because you have hurt
me so repeatedly
and so deeply
that I am scared
to ever think
about you.

Thinking about you
hurts me more than
it ever will hurt you.