Alternative selves

what doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger;
it makes you vulnerable, woundable and scarred
it wipes off parts of yourself you wish you could keep
but they are gone forever, irreplaceable.

what doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger;
and i
i could have been better off without going through hell
i would have been another self
and shape my way through life without all the hurt
from which healing was never guaranteed.

what doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger;
i am not who i am thanks to the pain i was in
but despite of it.
i stopped believing in purgatories –
life shouldn’t be an infern
nor a heaven.
we should all be allowed to progress in a balanced way
working on our own passages
towards alternative selves.