If Only (Revised)

“If only depression left a rash,

Or some kind of obvious tell,”

They mutter as another walks by

While they burn in their own hell.

“If only self-hate left a scar,

Maybe they’d spare me the scorn.”

And still no one stops to ask

Why they wish they’d never been born.

Now silence fills a dark lonely street;

A tortured soul is barely hanging on.

But no one asks and no one cares

To find where it all went wrong.

“If only grief marred my skin

And someone saw the sore,”

They whisper as they sit alone

And start drinking just a little more.

But then one drink becomes two

And two soon becomes three,

Until they’re drowning in that bottle -

A silent plea that no one sees.

Now sirens fill a dark lonely street;

A tortured soul is barely hanging on.

But no one asked and no one cared

To find where it all went wrong.

It all went wrong!

Then one night, they’ve had enough,

And they reach in that drawer by the bed.

No one listened, and no one came;

“So perhaps,” they think, “I’m better off dead.”

So they close their eyes and pull the trigger,

And across the pillow their life’s blood runs…

And only then do people stop and say,

“If only there was something I could’ve done.”

Now sirens fill a dark, lonely street,

A tortured soul is now dead and gone;

Their body cools as their story ends

And the uncaring world moves swiftly on.

The uncaring world moves swiftly on.