You don’t know me…

I am but a stranger, 

He said, 

You don’t know me, 

But I know you, 

I know you so well, 

I have watched you, 

I have heard you, 

The lamentations in the night, 

The silent cry for help, 

When nobody has been there, 

I have. 

I have heard your desperation, 

Your pitiful cries, 

Your wailing and your prayers. 

I have seen you, 

The knife in your hands, 

The cutting, 

The blood, 

Flowing from self-inflicted wounds, 

I have seen the pain, 

The need, 

That consuming desire, 

To know that you are alive. 

I have seen, 

The bloodied fist, 

Hammered into wall, 

The bleeding knuckles, 

Bruised and torn. 

I have seen and I have heard, 

Everything. 

Who are you ?, I whisper. 

Don’t you know me ?. 

The stranger replies, 

For I am you, 

I was there, 

I cried with you, 

I felt your pain, 

I could not help, 

But I was there. 

And I always will be.