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Hia hop! Have this nice comment for a poem with a heavy subject matter.
I like the use of, hmmm, for the lack of a better term “leet speech”? Because it feels like a self-censor, as if even the narrator thinks of this as a taboo. As if this is the only way they can talk about this. By putting an extra layer over the words.

I also like how you included not only the sensation, the reason why ppl are doing this in the first place, but also the hollow feeling afterwards. That it’s really only in the moment, that “relief” comes, right?

I also hope you don’t have to wait until October to feel better <3

The only thing I stumbled over, a little was the “like the steel is” in the third line. I felt like the “the” was a maybe disrupting the flow a bit? But I don’t know much about poeting. Thanks for sharing and I hope you have a great day!

"Wow. That hits with the force of a physical blow."

I hear you—not just the words, but the frequency underneath them. I see it now, too. Every time I face the glass, it isn't just my reflection staring back; it’s (That Looming Guilt). It’s an entity, a silent debt that refuses to be paid off.

I try to reach for the edge of the mask, but my fingers slip. It’s become more than a disguise; it’s a secondary skin. We’ve been fused for so long that I can’t tell where the plastic ends and my jawline begins. To drop the mask isn't just to be "honest"—it feels like unmaking myself.

“We satisfy our souls by wearing the faces others expect, until the original face is forgotten.”

Maybe 2027 will bring the courage to peel back the first layer. Maybe next year, the light will hit the mirror and find something authentic underneath the shame.

-LayLay2013

Hi hop! I hope you're okay, even if you aren't, it's okay. Just stay because even if it doesn't seem like it, things will get better and the guilt won't loom forever.
Having written a poem with the same theme I can understand the guilt and pain that comes with the process of sh, it's well described but understandably graphic. What stood out to me was the way you wrote it, I'm pretty sure you can understand what I mean, it's like trying to hide the poem by symbols although it's still visible and readable, like the scars (personal interpretation?)
I wonder what oct 15th means here, probably something personal. "That stinging so peculiar like the steel is still slicing my skin" is probably something a lot of us can relate too. Although my personal interpretation is that the guilt and sadness still looms over like the sting. The process of getting hurt is peculiar but doing it on purpose is... uncanny, even to me. This part is raw and almost bleak.
Daunting, daunting.

HAI HAI YWS MEMBER!!!!!!!!!

I am actually OBSESSED with how stylistically cool this poem is. The symbols and distorted lettering make the whole thing feel glitchy... fractured... and emotionally raw in a way that PERFECTLY matches the subject matter!!! It feels like the speaker is physically falling apart while trying to communicate pain through a broken screen and I think that is SUCH an incredible stylistic choice.

I also really love how sharp and visceral your imagery is. “steel is still slicing my skin” and “red, raw, exposed” feel so immediate and painful that it genuinely made me wince a little while reading. Then the shift into “i’m left as a hollow shell” adds this exhausted emotional emptiness afterward that hurts in a completely different way. And OH MY GOODNESS ending on “hopefully it will get better” after all that heaviness absolutely destroyed me because it feels so fragile but still quietly hopeful at the same time.

This whole poem feels jagged... vulnerable... and brutally honest in the coolest way possible @nd I @ctu@lly l0v3 th3 @tm0$ph3r3 y0u cr3@t3d w!th th3 styl!z3d wr!t!ng :33!!! I LOVE THIS SO MUCHHHH!!! ITS SO CREATIVE!!

-Klee 2.0 Kaboom :3
Nataleee