The difference is

It ate me alive

From the inside out

With corrosive guilt

It tore holes in my soul

And left me threadbare,

To have been this human grenade

Exploded and shredding lives

As if i was the only thing that mattered

And the world could die for all I cared

The distinction is a thin one

But it lets me face myself in the mirror

At the end of the day, with the knowledge

That something still beats in this chest

With empathy and compassion…