Can you be your own abuser

and spit vile words at yourself?

Can you do the most harm inside

and chip away at your health?

Can you hurt where no one sees

because the marks aren’t like bruises?

Can you cause permanent damage,

littered with excuses?

Can you bite the toxic apple

with your lips firmly closed?

Can you sip on drops of poison

so that no one else knows?

Can your brain be a battlefield

for rivals, logic and pain?

Can you fight a war within yourself,

with seemingly nothing to gain?

Can you waste away on reason

and everything you think,

Can you bleed yourself inside out,

when nary a neighbour blinked?