I can take this poem in a few different ways. Part of me takes it quite literal, someone in your life has passed, perhaps by abuse (drugs, physical etc) and you feel the guilt like you could have stopped it, if only you were brave enough.

Another part of me feels like you're talking about yourself. Holding yourself together, and then you have this breakdown (first stanza) where you thought you could maintain your image and all crumbled. If only you had the love of yourself could you have prevented that from happening, is the feeling I got from the second (my favorite) stanza. The bit about revenge is really intriguing as well, perhaps the subject was bullied about something and couldn't "use" that as motivation to better the situation and prove everyone wrong.

The ending is also amazing, as though you're in this rebirth process, and the breakdown didn't really make you learn much of anything, but in the meantime you've got it, and yourself, figured out.. you love yourself, and it's taken absolute chaos and destruction to get yourself to that point.

Of course I also feel it could be about a friendship, as it's written "to" someone. Such a versatile poem.. I really, really love this.

I have read some of your poetry and I think this is one of my favorites by you. I'm such a sucker for these kinds of poems. I can say I can connect so much to the emotions in this piece; seeing someone you love so much suffering in some way. It's heartbreaking and you try to do something - everything! But sometimes it's just not enough and you just end up blaming yourself. That first stanza is just so magnificent. The use of skeleton plus the connection of the bridge. Your use of such (for some) gruesome and sad objects yet turning them into something beautiful is inspiring for me. I am assuming this person you've written this for is someone you love dearly. And whenever I write something for someone I love, I always think of the most beautiful, most perfect things for them. But the way you used skeleton is just brilliant. Now I can go on and on about the skeleton, but there's just so much more I'd like to say about the rest of the poem :) The second stanza's pretty much direct to the point. It shows the gravity of your love for this person. And the final stanza, that's amazing. I can wholly connect with that. Blaming myself and regretting (if I am interpreting this correctly). I am in love with how you worded this. The knitting of the imagery throughout. It's such a sad piece.