Can't Go Back

You can't go back
to cool autumn days,
heading to the movies
and giggling over unintentional profanities.

You can't go back
to listening to new music
and trying to write an article
about a pep rally you slept through.

You can't go back
to the time when anorexia and depression
could be joked about
instead of silencing the room.

These days they're the marks we carry all over ourselves,
Our backs scratched raw,
our bodies starved thin.
It's the way we look at one another
knowing that we never really saw the other
all those years ago.
It's regret and fear
and the mirror reflection of our personal pain.